Shadow Adventure 2: Dark Story
by Ri2
Summary: Not just another role reversal! Scales reveals the truth about Rouge before running off to a final battle with Shadow. Who will win this titanic struggle that may very well determine the fate of the world? If you've read Hero Story, you know the answer.
1. Iron Gate

Hi all readers! Welcome to the other side of Shadow Adventure 2, the Dark side! Find out about Scales and Rouge, and their relationship to Snively! See the drama as your favorite battles from the Hero Story are reenacted! It's all starting right.now! (Oh, and Maverick, Amy can't go Super without the seven Chaos Emeralds. Besides, I think that would have been overkill. To beat up Snively in Super, that's nothing. Killing him in normal form is something to talk about. Snively definitely deserved that ending. Robotnik's going to live, Angel healed him, remember? By the way, what exactly do you mean when you say the baby Chao wasn't done justice? I don't really understand the comment. Anyway, don't worry. Except for Eggchao, the Chao will be fine. They'll get a new Egg soon. Not in this story, but they will get one.) Disclaimer; I own the Snivel Walker and Scales the Lizard.  
  
Oh, in case you haven't read the Hero Story, here's a quick character guide:  
  
HERO TEAM  
  
Shadow the Hedgehog: Main character and hero. Discovered about a decade ago by Dr. Ivan Robotnik in a cryogenic capsule. Awakened with no memories of his previous life, due to a bullet imbedded in his skull. Found with a Chaos Emerald and cool hover shoes. Testing seems to indicate he was created, not born, and is the "Ultimate Lifeform." Flat-out refuses to be commercialized in anyway. Has rejected every movie deal, advertisement, toy production and TV series offered him. Hates reporters.  
  
Amy the Hedgehog: Shadow's girlfriend. Created by leading scientist Professor Big in an attempt to make a female clone of Shadow. The experiment didn't work exactly the way it was supposed to. She is unable to use Chaos energy and is not as fast or as strong as Shadow, but compensates with a really big hammer. Loves Shadow.  
  
Knuckles the Echidna: Guardian of the Master Emerald and resident hero of Angel Island and the city of Echidnaopolis. Self proclaimed treasure hunter and bachelor. Doesn't have much of a social life due to his inflexibility in his task as Guardian of the Master Emerald. Whenever the thing breaks, he has to go looking for the pieces.  
  
DARK TEAM  
  
Scales the Lizard: Cyborg found in a G.U.N. research facility. Anger and revenge against G.U.N fuel her motives and feelings. Her reasons for this are as of yet unknown. Her past a mystery to all but herself, she seems to know Shadow from somewhere.  
  
Dr. Snively: Formerly Dr. Robotnik's lab assistant, Snively went renegade soon after the discovery of Shadow. Stealing many of Robotnik's greatest inventions, he conquered New York City and turned all of its citizens into machines. When he attempted to take over the East Coast, Shadow stopped him in his very first adventure. Since then, Snively has attempted multiple plans for world domination, all of which were thwarted by Shadow and friends. Currently has a new plan involving a certain lizard.  
  
Rouge the Bat: Shady treasure hunter who stole the Master Emerald, causing a certain Echidna to come after her. After the thing broke, she offered her skills to Snively to help him hunt down the elusive Super Emeralds. Loves jewels, but her true purpose and motives are a mystery.  
  
Okay, now that I've set that up, let's begin the story!  
  
Day 1, 12:30 AM  
  
Somewhere in the Arizona desert lies the vast headquarters of GUN, the military organization that is supposed to keep the peace worldwide. However, many dark secrets lie within GUN headquarters. And the greatest of all their secrets is about to be unleashed upon the world once more. Deep inside the fortress, an alarm went off. "Warning! Warning! Intruder detected in level one! Activating security! All troops clear the level, this intruder is armed and dangerous! This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill!" yelled a computerized voice. In a hallway deep in the fortress, a heavy-duty security door was suddenly blown open from the other side. The one who had done it came through the door, cackling maniacally. The person responsible was riding in a two-legged mech walker. It had a dull gray paint job. It had back bent legs with large red jet engines on them to enable hovering. The body was round and shaped like half of a ball, sort of like a pod. It had a large lens on the front, and some lights on the left side. A large cannon was attached to the machine's right side and on the left and towards the back was a swiveling tower with a Laser Blaster on the top, capable of locking on and destroying multiple targets. It was called the Snivel Walker, and also had a cool auto-repair function that fixed the walker when there weren't any damaging forces present. Sitting behind the dashboard of the vehicle, protected by a force field bubble, was the most evil man alive. It was Dr. Snively, infamous mad scientist and all- around villain, constantly thwarted in his attempts at global domination by Shadow the Hedgehog. Snively was very short, wore a blue shirt and black pants that also doubled as shoes, and was also pretty ugly. He had a pale face, a long needle nose, and only a few hairs on his dome of a head. One of his eyes was a telescoping lens, one of his arms was completely robotic, and both of his legs were mechanical as well. (Which was why they were covered up in such strange pants.) More parts of his body were mechanical as well, but they were inside of his body, such as a reinforced rib cage and an artificial liver. He cackled to himself. "These GUN people are supposed to be the strongest military organization in the world? Pathetic!" Snively was in the GUN headquarters on a mission of infiltration and retrieval. Recently, while going through the files of stuff that might be pertinent to him by hacking into the government and military databanks, he came across mention of a top-secret weapon held by GUN in their main headquarters. The information he found said it was created by Dr. Maria Robotnik, the old man's grandmother. He checked the files he had downloaded from the Robotnik family database before he had begun his criminal career mentioned Maria as one of the world's greatest scientists, said something about her creating a space colony, but also said nothing about a secret weapon she made. It didn't matter much to Snively, all he knew was that the weapon was supposed to be the most powerful weapon ever created, according to the information he had found in GUN's computers. So it was only natural for him to come over here and try to steal it, right? He snickered as he heard the security drones arming. This would be fun.  
  
Stage 1: Iron Gate. Mission: Get to the core of the military base.  
  
Snively headed down the hallway, entering a room with some gas tanks and not much else. Well, not much else aside from the Hunter robots firing their guns at him. He got hit once or twice, but ignored it. His walker could take some damage. He locked on to the Hunters and fired, destroying them in swift order. He headed for the hallway at the end of the room, and a door immediately slammed down over it. Snively studied the door. It looked just like the one he had destroyed on the way in; meaning it had the same weakness. He locked on to the four locks in the door's corners and fired, blasting the door down. He went through the hallway beyond, reaching a room with some small walls, a lift in two corners, and a pair of Hunters. Snively didn't even bother locking on, he simply blew the two Hunters away and looked for the exit. He saw a hallway on the wall next to the lift on his left. He stepped on the lift and was raised to the level of the hallway. He walked off, into the hallway. He was about to proceed into the room at its end when another security door lowered. Snively shook his head, locked on to the corners, and fired, blasting the door down. He entered a room with a small ledge jutting from the wall, which he landed on. Below him were some Beetles with lasers, unaware he was there. He locked on to the robots and fired, destroying them. He dropped down from the ledge and headed for the exit. Another door slammed down, blocking the hallway. He scowled and locked on to the door's corners, destroying it with laser blasts. He walked through the passageway, coming into a room that was a great slanted shaft. In front of him was a platform obviously designed to go down the shaft. Snively walked on to the platform and descended the shaft, blasting the loudspeaker in the corner of the room spouting that god- awful elevator music that had no place in a secret base. As the elevator platform descended, some Beetles and Hornets shot up from down the shaft, gunning for Snively. The evil doctor locked on to each robot as it appeared and destroyed it. Eventually he reached the bottom of the shaft. A small bridge came out to connect with the platform. Snively walked across the bridge and found yet another security door. Snively grimaced and blasted it down. He continued through the hallway beyond it and entered a room with some large fuel canisters and some Hunters. Instead of shooting at the robots as they fired their weapons, Snively grinned and blasted the fuel canisters behind them, resulting in a massive explosion that destroyed the Hunters. Snively laughed maniacally and walked through the hallway at the end of the room, going left as it turned. He was about to enter the next room when yet another security door lowered in front of him. Gritting his teeth, Snively blew the door open and went into the large room beyond. There were a few large pipes going horizontally across the rooms, platforms, and springs. In the middle of the room were three Hunters, which Snively quickly disposed of. He looked around, trying to figure out what he had to do next. He saw the next hallway was fairly high up. He jumped onto the lowest pipe and walked along it, stepping on the spring. He bounced off it onto a platform on his left with a container on it. He blasted the container to pieces, revealing another spring. He stepped on the spring and was bounced into the air, not really going towards a platform. He activated his hover jets and hovered through the air towards the closest platform. There was a spring on the platform. He bounced off it and landed on a higher pipe. He two other pipes across the room at his level, the last of which had a spring. He hovered across the pipes, finally reaching the spring. He bounced off the spring and landed in the hallway on the wall. He walked along the hallway and to the right, coming into a room with a lone Hawk. He destroyed the robot and saw a spring in the corner of the room. He bounced off the spring, landing on a platform. He saw a few more platforms, leading to a pulley. He jumped across the platforms and grabbed hold of the pulley with his walker's robot arm. The pulley lifted him up through a hole in the ceiling to another room, identical to the one below, including the Hawk! Snively let go of the pulley and hovered away from the hole, blasting the Hawk as he did so. He went over to the spring in the corner and bounced onto a platform. He jumped across the platforms, grabbing onto the pulley and getting lifted up to the next room. He walked down the hallway ahead of him, seeing a Hunter. He blasted it, and dropped down slightly as the path lowered. He did this two more times and came into a hallway with a lift at the end. He stepped on the lift and was raised to the door of the next room. He entered and found himself in another slanting elevator shaft. He stepped on the platform and waited impatiently as the platform slowly went down the shaft. He blasted all the Hawks, beetles, and Hornets that appeared, finally reaching the bottom of the shaft. A bridge platform extended, allowing him to cross to the door. As he reached the door, ANOTHER security door sealed over it! Growling angrily, Snively locked on to the door's corners and blasted it, knocking the door down. He walked down the hallway beyond and came into a fairly small room with several Hunters, a lift in the middle of the room leading to an upper catwalk, and a door at the end. Snively destroyed all the Hunters easily, then headed for the door. As he approached it, a huge blast door slammed shut over the doorway. Snively screamed in rage and hit the door with everything he had, unable to blast the door down. Enraged, his eyes darted around the room. He suddenly saw a missile lying on the catwalk. Snively stepped on the lift and went up to the catwalk. He locked on to the missile's control panel and blasted it to pieces. The missile shook and launched towards the blast door, exploding and destroying it. Snively laughed gleefully and went through the doorway, which led to a long hallway. He stepped on a dash panel and was propelled forward, hitting more dash panels to move faster across the hall. Finally, he made it to the hallway and another elevator shaft. Hovering over the elevator platform was the Goal Ring. Snively passed through the Goal Ring, finishing the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Snively went through the door and hallway at the bottom of the elevator shaft, entering a large storeroom with plenty of crates. What Snively was looking for was at the back of the room. He walked past the crates and found a large console with a cable connected to a big capsule on an elevated platform. Snively frowned. "This is the secret weapon? But it's so.so much smaller than I expected! Why can't it be a giant robot of doom with which I can burn the cities of the world and stomp the masses into bloody red goo with? Or some kind of missile that will release a plague of darkness over the land? Hell, even an amplified recording of every song ever sung by Britney Spears would do!" He complained, whining. He looked closer at the capsule. "Well, maybe it is a missile. Ooh, maybe it's a gun that can roboticize people instantly! That way, I can just hook it up to the Snivel pod and go around, turning people into mindless machines at free will! Let's see." Snively went over to the console and leaned his walker over. "Let's see now, what was the password again? Oh yes, GE-RA-LD. Gerald, after Maria Robotnik's son and the fat man's father." Snively typed in the password. A hole opened in the console. Snively knew what he was supposed to do now. He took out the gray Super Emerald he had recently managed to find at the bottom of the ocean and inserted it into the console. The lights on the console came to life, beeping and flickering. The Chaos energy from the Super Emerald went through the cable and into the capsule, bathing the contents with Chaos radiation. Inside the capsule, an Emerald flickered and gained a steady glow, reenergized. Snively waited eagerly, hoping the capsule would open soon. It didn't. It suddenly exploded in a blast of green light, sending fragments of metal all over the room. Snively flinched, worried that the weapon had exploded. As the smoke started to clear, Snively thought he could see a figure standing where the capsule was. "Eh? Who's there? If you're after the weapon, I was here first!" The smoke was swept away, and the figure could clearly be seen. Snively blinked. "Huh? Who are you?" The figure standing on the platform was what looked like a female anthropomorph lizard. Her flesh was orange-red, and the underside of her tail was yellow. The long, flexible appendage ended in two sharp, curved blades. Her two legs were bent back, but designed so that they allowed her to walk like most people and not like, say, a dinosaur. Her feet looked like the feet of a velociraptor, complete with talons and special scythe claw. She wore two metal rings around her ankles. A red transparent dome filled with complex machinery and a black Chaos Emerald was on her back. Cables came out of the dome, going into her back and up her long neck where they connected to the base of her skull. She had two long arms with elbow spikes and four-fingered claws. She had two bracelets similar to her anklets. Her head was sleek and reptilian, with nostril slits and intelligent, yellow eyes. Her mouth was full of small, sharp teeth and a snake's tongue. A sort of metal capsule grew from the spot between her eyes, with a blue crystalline window in it containing some sort of a microchip. The lizard blinked and looked down at Snively. "Who are you?" "What do you mean, who am I? I asked you first!" Snively said angrily. The lizard frowned. "Very well. My name is Scales. And you are?" Snively struck a proud pose. "I am Snively the Great, the world's most brilliant genius!" Scales cocked her head. "I.see." She bowed her head. "I thank you for freeing me, my master. In return for your generosity, I shall grant you one wish." Snively blinked. "A wish? What are you, a genie?" Scales chuckled. "No, I am much more than a genie. I am the world's Ultimate Lifeform." Snively looked at her, confused. "You are? But I thought-" He was cut off as an alarm went off. "Warning! Warning! A powerful weapon has been taken from the storeroom. Report to storeroom level 5 now!" yelled the computer voice. The exits sealed and a wall opened up, revealing a metal monstrosity, a giant GUN walker. It looked exactly like the Bigfoot walker, except it had a big laser cannon instead of an engine intake beneath the triple machine gun. The huge walker stepped out of the wall and strode forward. The pilot looked out of his cockpit. "This is B-3x Hotshot of Spider Troop reporting in. Dr. Snively and a lizard accomplice have been spotted." He said, calling his superiors. "Copy that. Wait, did you say lizard?" asked the guy at the other end. "Uh, yes sir." Said the pilot. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! We're all gonna die! Evacuate that level of the base immediately!" the superior yelled to some other guy before cutting off the line. The pilot was confused for a moment, but shrugged. "Dr. Snively, unknown lizard, you are under arrest for breaking into GUN headquarters and attempting to steal an experimental weapon. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." "Oh my, I'm not sure my walker can beat that thing." Muttered Snively. Scales was having a completely different reaction to the enemy. "GUN." she whispered. She was clenching her fists tightly, looking like at any moment she would explode. She looked straight at the walker's pilot. "No.I will not let the crimes you have committed go unpunished.you're not putting me back in the capsule." Her fists got even tighter. Veins started to bulge out all over her body. Her eyes turned from yellow to blood red. Spikes popped out of her legs, neck, and arms. She snarled. "YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" she screamed, before unleashing a primeval roar and jumping off the platform. Snively watched in amazement as Scales ran towards the walker.  
  
B-3x Hotshot  
  
Hotshot stomped towards Scales, intending to flatten her with its feet. She jumped to the side, kick-jumped off a crate, and soared into the air. She launched into a Homing Kick, smashing into the cockpit and cracking it a little. Hotshot pulled back and folded up his legs, taking to the air. As it started to fire its machine gun, trying to hit Scales, she ran behind a crate. Hotshot flew after her, destroying the crate with its machine gun fire. Scales jumped onto a nearby crate, leaping off it as Hotshot broke it with his machine gun. She jumped onto a stack of crates, a little above Hotshot. As the walker blasted the crates, Scales jumped off of the stack and hurtled down at the cockpit with another Homing Kick, cracking the cockpit some more. Hotshot shuddered, then the large laser cannon started moving, a big red crosshairs appearing and trailing after Scales. The cannon started gathering energy, a big ball of said energy collecting at the nozzle of the cannon. Scales ran across the room, dodging the targeting crosshairs. She knew it was only a matter of time before the gun would be forced to fire. When the energy ball started getting almost as big as the walker itself, Scales jumped onto a crate. The walker was forced to fire immediately, shooting a ridiculously huge laser blast at the crate. She jumped right as the laser fired. The explosion caused by the blast hitting the crate sent her high into the air. She came down with a Homing Kick, smashing the cockpit again. The whole glass shield was now a web of cracks. Hotshot shook and flew some distance away. Scales ran after him. The walker turned around and landed, opening its missile boxes. As Scales got closer, Hotshot fired eight missiles at the lizard. Scales ran through the cloud of explosives with surprising speed, sending the projectiles into nearby crates. The last missile hurtled right towards her. She jumped over and onto the missile, immediately springing off of it as the rocket crashed into the ground and exploded. She flipped through the air and launched a final Homing Kick, smashing through the cockpit and impaling the pilot with her raptor claws. He slumped in his seat, dead. Scales extricated her talons from the dead man's corpse and jumped down. Her eyes turned to yellow again, but her blades were still out. As Snively walked over to her, she calmly asked, "Well doctor, how was my performance?" Snively grinned, obviously impressed. "So Scales, you are the military's secret weapon! But tell me, what did you mean when you said you would grant me a wish?" Scales looked over him for a moment, mentally gauging his desires. He seemed greedy, and quite evil. He was perfect for what she needed to do. "Bring the Super Emeralds." She said. "Huh?" asked Snively, not getting it. "Find some Super Emeralds and meet me on the space colony ARK. All will be explained then." She said, heading for a sealed door. When she came to it, she cupped her hands and thrust outward. "Serpent Strike!" A giant serpent's head formed of green energy shot out, destroying the door. Scales walked out. Snively shook his head, amused, and grabbed the gray Super Emerald from the console before going through the exit Scales had made.  
  
And so the Dark Story begins! What does Scales mean about GUN? What lies on the space colony ARK? If you don't know, then you must not have read the Hero Story or played SA2. In any case, stay tuned for the next chapter! 


	2. Dry Lagoon

Here we go, Rouge's first chapter! I know you probably don't like treasure hunt levels, but Rouge's help influence the plot, whereas two of Knuckles' levels are just for filler. Here we go! (Oh, by the way, I just realized that since Egypt is in a different time zone than the US, the clock I use for the time of each chapter shouldn't make sense. So just think of it as being the time in the US throughout the entire story. Disclaimer: I do not own any characters made by Sega or Archie Comics.  
  
Day 1, 12:00 PM  
  
The sun shone down on an interesting scene in the middle of the Egyptian desert. Two treasure hunters faced each other in some temple ruins half a mile from a pyramid. Between them was a massive green jewel. One of the hunters was a handsome red Echidna with long dreadlocks/spines, spiked knuckles, and a white crescent on his chest indicating his guardianship. The other was a white bat, with black wings, white boots with heart emblems at the tips, and a heart-shaped cover over a black leotard. Strangely enough, she had spiked knuckles as well. The two glared at each other. A few weeks ago, the bat had stolen the jewel from the shrine on Angel Island. The echidna had been on her tail ever since, trying to get it back for some reason. "Look, just give the Emerald to me!" he yelled. The bat scowled. "I'm not giving you this jewel! It's mine! I stole it, I keep it." The echidna snorted. "What kind of lady goes around stealing jewels anyway?" "I do!" "And who are you, anyway?" "The name's Rouge the Bat, expert jewel thief. And I'm not letting you take my Emerald without a fight." She said. "YOUR Emerald?! Why I oughta-" Their conversation was cut off when suddenly a metal claw came down from the sky, grabbed the Emerald, and pulled it up. Rouge gasped. "What the hell? Give me back my Emerald, you thief!" Rouge yelled at the thing taking the Emerald. The echidna snickered. "Look who's calling who a thief." The claw fully retracted. It was attached to the underside of the floating Snivel Pod. Snively looked over the side of the pod at the Master Emerald, grinning. "Ah, this is the Master Emerald, is it not? It's not what I'm looking for, but it'll do nicely. I'd better recalibrate my Chaos detector, I'm looking for Super Emeralds, not the Chaos or Master Emeralds." "Snively, get your metal claws away from the Emerald!" growled the echidna. "So THAT'S Dr. Snively." Rouge muttered to herself. Snively chortled. "What'll you do if I do touch it?" he asked. "How about this?" said the echidna, raising his arms. Storm clouds gathered above them. Snively looked up, confused. The echidna prepared the special attack he had learned recently. "Thunder Arrow!" "What are you-" Snively's query was broken off as a lightning bolt shot down from the heavens, striking Snively head on. As he flailed about, screaming, the lightning coursed through the pod, causing the claw to let go of the Master Emerald. The giant gem fell towards the ground. Both treasure hunters' eyes widened. They raced for the gem, trying to grab it before it hit the ground. They slammed into each other and fell over. The Emerald hit the ground and shattered, splitting into twelve pieces. The pieces flashed and vanished. Rouge screamed and grabbed the echidna as they both got up. "You idiot! Why did you do that?!" The echidna shoved the bat off of him. "Relax! The Emerald's just broken, not destroyed. If I find all the pieces, I can put it back together." Rouge blinked. "Oh. Okay then." Snively coughed up smoke, his hair more than a little burnt. "This bears looking into." He wheezed. He took the controls of his pod and flew wobbly away towards the pyramid. "Well, I'd better start looking for those pieces." Said Rouge, starting to walk away. "What are you talking about?" Rouge smirked. "I'm going to get the pieces of the Emerald first. I despise anyone who takes my gems. All the jewels in the world belong to me!" She ran off in the direction of the pyramid, following both Snively and her treasure senses. The pod was moving very slowly, due to the damage inflicted by the echidna's Thunder Arrow, and Snively couldn't just land the thing so it could repair itself because the heavy walker would sink into the sand. Rouge ran under the shadow of the very slow Pod and took a device from her dimensional pocket. She threw it in the air. It sprouted little jets and flew up tot he Pod, attaching itself to the bottom of the hull. Her homing beacon would allow Rouge to follow Snively later. Right now, she needed to find some of those Emerald fragments! Following her treasure senses, Rouge headed for an oasis in a valley.  
  
Stage 2: Dry Lagoon. Mission: Find 3 pieces of the Master Emerald.  
  
Rouge was in a large, circular valley with some pillars and statues. There were several ledges and crates, and for some reason there were plenty of GUN robots patrolling the place. In the middle of the valley was a big pool of water with a whirlpool coming out of an underwater tunnel in it. She saw what looked like a giant tortoise being guarded by two Hunters. Curious, she ran over and smashed the Hunters with a couple of kicks. The tortoise came out of its shell and waddled to the pool, diving in. Feeling accomplished, Rouge started to look for Emerald shards. After killing a couple of Hunters and Beetles, Rouge climbed up the wall of the valley to try to pick anything up on her treasure sense. She saw an Emerald piece high in the air, too high to glide to. She saw a spring situated on a ledge above where she had entered the lagoon area. She climbed over to the ledge and bounced off the spring, launching into the air. She broke into a glide and went forward, grabbing the Emerald in midair. As she did so, a couple of Hawks flew at her, trying to knock her out of the sky. Rouge glided through the Hawks, destroying them before they could hurt her. She glided back to the wall and started climbing up and around. She got onto the top ledge, which was patrolled by some Rhinos and Hunters. Rouge ran around the ledge, kicking away the robots, until she found something interesting when she broke one of the Rhinos. It was another Emerald shard! Pleased with herself, she grabbed the piece and continued her search around the area. She was to be disappointed. She broke every robot, urn, treasure chest she could find, and dug into every wall painting she saw, but could find no piece. Frustrated, she sat at the edge of the pool. She noticed the tunnel and wondered if it might lead anywhere. She dived into the pool and tried to swim into the tunnel, but the whirlpool shot her back out. She emerged on the surface, sputtering. She frowned and then noticed the tortoise. Getting a wild idea, she climbed onto the tortoise's big shell. The amphibian submerged, carrying Rouge underwater, through the tunnel, and out in a different oasis. Rouge gasped for air, taking a deep breath, and suddenly noticed the area she was in. It was gorgeous! Aside from the irritating presence of the GUN robots, it was a beautiful oasis. There were flowers, grass, and lots of butterflies. In the middle of the large lake she was in was an island with an obelisk. And at the tip of that obelisk, sunlight gleaming off it, was the last piece of the Master Emerald. Rouge jumped off the tortoise and swam to the island, pulling herself up. She climbed the obelisk but was immediately knocked down when a Beetle shot at her. Cursing and hurting a little, she tried a different face of the obelisk. The stupid Beetle didn't notice her, and Rouge was able to climb to the top in peace. She jumped onto the very tip of the stone pinnacle and grabbed the third piece, finishing the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Rouge gave herself a pat on the back. She checked her treasure senses and was disappointed to see there were no more pieces anywhere nearby. Oh well. It was time to get back to her real mission, anyway. Checking the scanner for her homing beacon, she assured herself that Snively wasn't going anywhere fast and decided to take a break. She could use some lunch and a massage or two. She climbed to the edge of the oasis and started walking back to the ruins, where she had left the Rougemobile.  
  
I know, I know, that wasn't too good, but I wasn't really sure how to do another hunter level. Don't worry, the next treasure hunt will be better, I hope. Please review! 


	3. Sand Ocean

I apologize again for how much the last chapter must have sucked. Really. Here's a better one. Disclaimer: I don't own jack but the Snivel Walker in this chapter. And Scales.  
  
Day 1, 7:00 PM (That's US time, not Egyptian time. In Egypt, it's around six.)  
  
Snively grumbled and landed the pod, finally making it to the outskirts of his ruins/pyramid base. It had taken six hours to make a trip that should have only lasted half of an hour, causing him to get baked by the hot Egyptian sun. As he waited very impatiently for the walker/pod to repair itself, he opened up an access panel concealed in a wall and tried to type in the code to let him in safely. But seeing as how angry he already was, what with moving so slowly, getting a nasty sunburn, and getting fried by lightning, it's no wonder that Snively accidentally punched in the wrong code and activated his defenses. He screamed, his day getting even worse, and ran forward once the walker was fully healed, intending to take out his anger on some poor robots.  
  
Stage 3: Sand Ocean. Mission: Return to hidden base.  
  
Snively walked forward, dropping from the initial platform to a bridge below. He walked forward until the bridge stopped. Ahead of him was a rotating platform with a brazier in the center and two more platforms jutting from the side. The rotating platform was the only way he could continue. He hovered onto one of the platforms, waited until he was close to the platform leading away to the right, and hovered off. He landed on the platform to the right and walked down its length. At the end, he saw a ruined building ahead of him. He hoverd to a platform at the base of the building and got attacked by a Hawk. Nearly falling into the quicksand, Snively blasted the stupid robot to oblivion. He hopped up a series of platforms within the ruined building, reaching the top. He jumped from the top and hovered to a platform leading inside a building. Snively walked inside and was faced by severaql firing Hawks. He blasted the Hawks away, and saw he was at the edge of a chasm with a large pillar right in front of him. The pillar had dynamite packs attached to it. Snively locked on to the packs and blasted them, knocking down the pillar and allowing him to cross the pit. He went across and entered a room with a short set of stairs leading to a raised walkway. He went up the stairs and down the walkway, coming to a room that went sideways. There was another chasm and pillar to cross. Snively blasted down the pillar and walked across it. He came to a dead end, another pillar to his left. He blasted the packs on the pillar, making it a higher bridge across the chasm he had just crossed and letting him get to the upper level of the room. He walked across the pillar and turned right, jumping up some platforms and reaching a landing with swinging maces. He hovered over the maces and proceeded down the path. He came to yet another chasm, with some Hunters at the edge. He destroyed the Hunters, blasted down the pillar, and walked across the pit. He went down a ramp and was outside again. Straight ahead was a bridge leading to a floating platform. He walked across the bridge and hovered to the rotating platform, then hovered to a different platform, recalling it was the proper way to get to the pyramid in the center of the ruins. He saw several movign platforms aherad of him, going back and forth across the sand. Snively hovered across the platforms, careful not to misjudge the timing, and eventually came to a multi-tiered platform with a pillar and a fuel tank. Snively blew up the tank, giving him a stepping stone to reach the higher tier. From here, he was able to lock on to the charges on the pillar and blow them, knocking it over and providing him with a bridge. He walked across the bridge and reached a small walkway with two small platforms on either side and a rotating platform straight ahead. Two Hawks flew out of the sky, attacked, and were destroyed. Snively kept going and hovered on to the rotating platform. He hovered from there to a platform far to his left. He saw a moving platform coming towards him. He jumped onto the platform and let it carry him to two platforms by his left. One was a bridge, the other had two fences and was small. Snively hovered onto the small platform, and hovered from there to the bridge. He walked down the bridge and into a large area with an altar. He ignored it and hovered on to a moving platform ahead of him. He hovered from that platform to another one moving sideways, and jumped from that one to a bridge leading inside a building. Snively walked down the bridge and was attacked by five Hawks. He destroyed the robots and entered the building. He was on a platform with a chasm before him. At the other end of the room was a rigged pillar. Snively walked to the side of the pillar and blasted the dynamite packs on the pillar, causing it to fall over and form a bridge. Snively jumped onto the pillar and walked across. He dropped from the other end to a room full of priceless Egyptian vases from the Ramses Dynasty. Snively blasted them all to pieces and went forward. He walked up a short staircase and came to a courtyard with several pillars, a Rhino tank, an altar and some small pillars next to it. Snively blasted the Rhino and destroyed the small pillars, forming a set of small steps he jumped on to get to the top of the altar. He jumped and hovered from the top of the altar, going over a large fence and landing in a room filled with pillars over a quicksand pit. Snively carefully hovered from pillar to pillar, wary since he knew some of the pillars were triggered to sink if weight was placed on them. He landed on a ledge leading outside, on a path that had swinging maces. Snively hovered over the maces and went down the path. He walked down the long path, destroying some Hunters that got in his way, and saw another rotating platform. He hovered onto the platform as it sung by, and jumped off on the other side, onto a path lined with tall imposing statues of Egyptian gods, all of which had their faces ripped off and replaced with renditions of Snively. He grinned proudly as he walked by the mammoth copies of himself, eager for when statues like these would be scattered all around the world. The path ended in a set of jump plates. Snively walked on to the jump plates and was launched on to a path ahead, leaping over quicksand and a large pit of fire. He walked down the path ahead and was inside another building. A giant chasm was blocking his path, numerous pillars in several positions across the void. Snively grimaced and locked on to the pillar on the ledge right next to him, setting off the charges. The pillar fell over, hitting a platform with another pillar on it. Snively jumped onto and walked across the pillar, detonating the charges on the one ahead of him and forming a bridge to the right. He jumped on the pilalr and walked across it, stopping in front of the next pillar. He blew the charges, and the pillar fell, stopping on a platform to his left. Snively jumped on the pillar and walked across, blasting the packs on the next pillar and causing it to fall tot he left, stopping on a platform with the next pillar. He went across the bridge and blasted the charges on the pillar, causing it to fall to the right and make a bridge to the exit. Snively walked across the bridge and out into the fresh night air. He walked down the pillar-lined walkway before him and was ambushed by a dozen Hunters. As the robots fired, Snively shook but returned shots, destroying the robots. He continued down the walkway, up some stairs at the end, and came to a platform built into the side of the pyramid! He had made it! Right in front of him was the entrance into the base. Hovering in the middle of the platform was the Goal Ring. Snively walked through the Goal Ring, ending the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
After easily getting through the locked door inside, Snively took the elevator down to the pyramid core, going across the circular quicksand pit and entering his inner sanctum. Ignoring the greetings from his robot slaves and offers of massages or food, Snively took his walker straight to the command center. It was a chamber that had once been the tomb of a great pharoah. Snively had taken all the treasure when he had claimed the pyramid and dumped the mummy of the dead king into the quicksand pit. He had radically revamped the tomb. It was now a long, rectangular hallway. A walkway lined with more statues that had his face on them lined the walkway. At the end of the walkway was a huge console with multiple screens. Behind the console was a grated area filled with pistons and other cool machinery, the reactor that powered the entire facility. A circular platform in front of the console was Snively's personal teleporter, currently turned off. The mad freak jumped down from his walker and activated the console, checking for the news. He had every important news broadcast in the world TiVo'ed so he could watch it at leisure and fast forward through the boring commercials. He turned on the TiVo device and selected CNN news. He fast forwarded at hyper speed through all the boring stuff, such as the execution of Barney, the cancellation of Teletubbies, Tails Prower's catching a blue whale by accident on his most recent fishing trip, Shadow the Hedgehog getting arrested and Scales stealing a Super Emerald, proof positive of Chaos Fusion.wait! He stopped and rewound, playing the news clipping. The canine anchorperson began. "In CNN breaking news, we have a shocking discovery! World'renowned hero Shadow the Hedgehog has been arrested earlier today by the military organization GUN. They gave no comment on what crime he committed and whether or not he did indeed escape from the military at one point by jumping out of a helicopter and using a wingflap to street board through the city of San Franscisco. What is know is that he is currently being transported to the former island of Alcatraz, nowadays known as Prison Island, where he will be held pending a military trial. What crime has this great hero committed to get himself caught by the planet's greatest security organization? Will he be proven innocent? And will this camera-shy hegehog ever let us give him an interview? Thank you, and now for sports-" Somebody offscreen handed the anchorperson a piece of paper. "What's this?" She looked at the paper. "Oh my! This just in, a strange lizard has broken into the San Fransisco Federal Reserve Bank and taken what is reported to be a Super Emerald. GUN forces have forbidden police to interfere, saying that this lizard is an escaped convict from their holding cells. What is this lizard's reason for stealing the priceless Super Emerald? Why-" Snively turned off the TV. "So, Scales has already started. Why do we need the Super Emeralds, I wonder? And what is on the ARK?" Snively asked himself. He accessed the files on the ARK he had copied from the Robotnik family database. He was disappointed to find nothing he didn't already know, that it had been made by his former employer's grandmother and was responsible for many scientific and technological achievements. There was a slight mention of a secret project, but nothing else. Frustrated, he turned on the teleporter and set it for the coordinates of the ARK. The circle started glowing, primed and ready. He walked back along the walkway to his walker and got in. He piloted the machine into the circle and waited as the teleportation sequence began. He didn't know what awaited him on the space colony ARK, but he would soon find out.  
  
So how was this chapter? I hope it wasn't too bad. Please review and tell me what you thought of it. If you're worried about this not being too interesting, next chapter we finally have Scales' first chapter. We will finally have some more plot development! Woo! 


	4. Radical Highway

Where are my reviews? I NEED REVIEWS! I NEED THEM OR I WILL EXPLODE! That happens sometimes. Disclaimer: I only own Scales and her mother.  
  
Day 1: 7:00 PM  
  
Atop one of the bridge support towers of the Golden Gate Bridge, a cyborg lizard looked down at the GUN cars below her. Spotlights were constantly locked on her. She didn't mind, her eyes could handle most bright lights. She absent-mindedly played with the large green Super Emerald in her right hand, tossing it in the air. She looked down at the military soldiers below, shouting threats and orders at her. She didn't notice or care what they had to say. Her blood curdled at the thought of GUN, her sheer hatred to them bringing up once more a memory, one she had been forced to constantly relive every day of her life since it had happened. She closed her eyes as the memory took effect, and she was flung into the past.  
  
The time was fifty years ago, the place observation deck B on the space colony ARK. Scales and her mother were extremely anxious, worried that at any moment the enemy would break in to the room and capture or kill them. Her mother looked up from the control panel she had been fiddling with. "Scales, please stand in the middle of the room." "Okay Mom." Scales went over to the center of the room. The glass capsule of the escape pod lowered over her. "This won't hurt, will it?" Her mother couldn't help smiling. "No dear, it won't hurt, just as it didn't hurt your brother when we launched him just a minute ago." She started pressing buttons. "Now, it might take me a little longer to come after and find you Scales, so I want you to promise me something." "What, Mom?" Scales asked. "First of all, I want you to find your brother and get him to a hospital. Thanks to the pod's secondary function, he won't die from the wound but you should still get him to the hospital as quickly as possible. And whatever you do, don't let the military get you or your brother." She said firmly. "I'll try, Mom." Said Scales. "There's another thing. I also want you to-" Just then, the door to the room raised and a lynx in military attire walked in. He unholstered his gun and fired, striking Scales' mother in the back. She gasped and fell on the control panel. As Scales screamed, her mother managed to press a button on the panel, activating a temporary force field that kept the lynx back. Trying to hold on to her life, the mother managed to turn to face her child. "Scales.listen to me.promise me one last thing.I want you to continue my work.to make the people of Earth happy.as I made you and your brother to do. Promise me you'll protect the world.as I intended you to do." She gasped and clutched her chest. "Promise me." She slumped to the floor, dead, but not before pressing the final button in the launch sequence on the control panel. The escape pod rumbled and was ejected through a hole in the floor, hurtling through space and to the world below. "MOMMY!!!!!!!!" Scales screamed, crying.  
  
A tear rolled down the lizard's cheek in the present. She looked down sadly, at the flashing lights below. Her resolve hardened, her eyes turning red. "I will do as you asked, mother. I will make the people of Earth happy. But I also promise you something. I will have revenge on GUN, what they did to our family, to our way of life. I can never forgive GUN for what they have done. And so, they must be destroyed." Her spikes shot out, and she jumped off the top of the bridge support, grinding down the big cable, using the grooved pads on her feet to stay on the rail.  
  
Stage 4: Radical Highway. Mission: Break through the besieging military.  
  
Scales grinded down the rail, leaping off at the lowest point, jumping over the barricade the military had put up to keep out civilians. She ran forward along the huge bridge, running into a tunnel. She jumped over more barricades and came out to the edge of the bridge, a set of springs pointing at the next segment. She bounced off the springs, landing on the bridge ahead. She saw a trio of Fighters soaring towards her. Growling, she jumped in the air and performed three Homing Kicks as the Blue Eagle planes came lower, smashing each cockpit in succession and sending the planes crashing into the water below the bridge. She ran forward, passing through some empty tollbooths and running down a steep hill. She kept going as the road straightened out, suddenly splitting in two up ahead and going up. She randomly chose the path on the left, hitting a dash panel as she started up the road, increasing her speed. The road curved sharply upward, going into a loop. Scales ran through the loop and down a piece of unfinished road, hitting the bottom of the loop and landing on solid ground. She ran up ahead to find that the path continued at the top of a high platform. In front of her were two Hunters. Before they could make a move, she wiped them out with two Tail Whips. She saw a pulley on the side of the platform and grabbed on to it, elevating to the top of a bridge support. She jumped of the pulley and grinded down the cable ahead of her, landing past another barricade. She ran down another tunnel and came out, finding the road curved to the left. Ahead of her was a really big metal cylinder, rolling in its setting and preventing passage. She could have somersaulted under the cylinder. Instead, she delivered a kick to the cylinder, tearing it from its setting and sending it rolling down the bridge, flattening several Hunters and Beetles before breaking through the safety wall of the bridge and falling to the water below. She ran through the arch where the roller had been and found the path stopped where the roller had fallen off. She saw a floating chain of Beetles in the air. She Homing Kicked along the chain, landing on a platform with a spring. A Hawk swooped down and fired at her. She Homing Kicked into it, then Homing Kicked back to the platform and bounced from the spring to a high section of road with a rocket at the end. As some Blue Eagles flew towards her as she raced for the rocket, Scales stopped and Homing Kicked the jet fighters, killing the pilots inside. She ran to the end of the road and grabbed the rocket, launching for another section of road. She dropped from the rocket, landing on the road. It stopped ahead as another platform jutted from the ground. There was a pulley and two more Hunters. Scales immediately annihilated the Hunters and grabbed the pulley, getting raised to the top of another bridge support. She grinded down the support cable, jumping off at the lowest part, and running through the tunnel up ahead. She ran through a bunch of tollbooths and was attacked by some Hornets. She quickly killed the Hornets and ran on a set of dash panels, going through a 360-degree loop and running down an unfinished portion of road before landing on a straight path. She ran forward, going down a very long and steep hill, picking up tremendous speed and moving very fast when the ground leveled out as she headed for a building straight ahead. The building was a hollow vertical tunnel filled with springs. As spring was at the edge of the road, which Scales bounced off of. She ricocheted down the tunnel in a spiral, bouncing from spring to spring before finally landing in a tunnel leading back to the road. The road ended only a few feet ahead, in front of a set of springs guarded by a Hunter. Scales killed the Hunter and bounced off the springs, landing on the road above. She ran ahead, following the road to the right and sloping upward before stopping. Before her was a chain of Beetles hovering across the gap. She Homing Kicked across the gap, landing on the next section of road. She ran ahead a ways, going up a ramp and stopping at a barricade with a horizontal pole above it. Ahead of the barricade, the road ended. The bridge support was ahead, with several floating metal cylinders she could use as elevators. She jumped up and grabbed on to the pole, swinging around it a few times to build up momentum. She let go of the pole, launching towards the pillars. She jumped up the cylinders, quickly reaching the top elevator. Ahead of her was a chain of Beetles. She Homing Kicked across the Beetles, landing atop a bridge support. She jumped on to the left tower and grinded down the cable, jumping off at the lowest point. She saw a very tall barrier blocked off the road ahead. A spring was at the bottom. She jumped on the spring and was bounced all the way to the top of the barrier, landing on the next bridge support. She saw a gap and the next section of road at the other end. Three platforms floated in the gap. She jumped from platform to platform, reaching the other side. Straight ahead, the road was blocked off again. Two springs sat on either side of a metal crate, and a series of floating metal cylinders sat on either side of the road. Two Hunters guarded the springs. Scales destroyed the Hunters and bounced off the spring on the right, jumping to the lowest cylinder. She hopped up from cylinder to cylinder before reaching the top of the blockade and another bridge support. She grinded down the cable and leaped off at the low section, running past some metal frameworks and "ROAD CLOSED" signs. She reached another section of road on a higher platform. There was no spring, and only one Hunter. She Homing Kicked the Hunter then jumped off its head as it fell to pieces, reaching the higher road. She ran past some tollbooths and down a hill in a tunnel, coming out, hitting some dash panels, and going through two loops and down a long hill with two ramps. She ran forward and off the ramps as she hurtled down the hill, getting extreme airtime and cutting through most of the area. She came to a stop as the road ended at a spring. She hit the spring and bounced to the road above. She ran down the road, which ended. A pole ran above her. She jumped up and grabbed the pole, swinging around it until she picked up enough speed and let go, hurtling on to a floating metal cylinder over a large gap in the road. She jumped up and across the series of cylinders, stopping before an electric Beetle. She waited for the electric shield to dissipate and then Homing Kicked into the Beetle and did the same for a chain of normal Beetles after the electric one. She did one more Homing Kick to land on a high road above her. She ran down the road and killed the two Hunters at the end of it, hitting a spring at the end of the path and bouncing to the top of the next bridge support tower. She grinded down one of the bridge cables, jumping off at the end and getting assaulted by a pair of Hawks. She killed the Hawks and kept going, jumping over a barricade and stopping at the end of the road, near a stack of crates. She jumped up the crates and used them to get to the higher portion of road ahead of her, running to the right as the road went that way. She ran past some big yellow cans and into a tunnel, coming out at the top of a hill. She ran down the hill, over a dash panel and into a loop. She was launched from a jump plate at the end of the loop to another section of road, right onto a pole at the road's end. She grabbed the pole and swung around a few times, picking up momentum. She let go and was sent hurtling onto a metal cylinder floating above the water. She jumped across several more floating metal cylinders, going up to the road above. She passed through some tollbooths and hear a whine as some more Blue Eagles came towards her. She jumped on top of a tollbooth, waiting for the planes to come. When the first jet got close, she jumped onto it, smashed open the cockpit, ripped the pilot out and threw him into the water below. She turned the fighter around, heading for the other two. She launched the fighter's missiles at the other fighters and jumped out, landing on the road she had started on. The Blue Eagle's missiles destroyed its former wingmates. The vacant plane wobbled and went into a downward spiral, crashing and exploding into the water. "Well, that was fun." Said Scales. She ran through the tollbooths again and ran down a steep hill. At the bottom, the road leveled out then split into two ramps. Scales went up the left ramp, running across a dash panel to go up the steep, curbed road. She was launched from the top by a jump plate, landing on a long stretch of road filled with enemies. She ran down the road, killing every Hunter, Hornet, Hawk and Beetle in sight before passing through another set of tollbooths and reaching the end of the bridge, going into the city. Hovering over the off-ramp was the Goal Ring. She jumped through the Ring, finishing the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Scales ran down the off ramp, jumped off of a few cars and poles, running across the roof of a small building and landed on a fallen walker. She did not notice the heroic black and red hedgehog that stared up at her, gaping. She paused for a moment to admire her prize, holding the Super Emerald to catch the gleam of the stars and moon. "It all starts with this, a jewel containing the ultimate power." She said to herself. "That's the city's Super Emerald! What are you doing with that?" asked Shadow, astonished. Scales looked down, noticing Shadow. Her eyes bulged and she almost slipped off of hr perch on the machine. "Sh-Shadow? Is that really you?" she asked, shocked and a little happy. Shadow frowned. "Have we met?" Scales blinked and her expression turned sad. "You don't.you don't remember me? Well, I guess that's to be expected." she said, disappointed. "I have no idea who you are. What are you doing with that Emerald? It belongs to the city. Give it back." Said Shadow. Scales looked even sadder. "I'm sorry Shadow, but I can't give this up. I need it more than you can imagine. I also regret that you do not remember me." Shadow started towards her. "I don't know how you know me, but we can talk about being reacquainted after you give me that Super Emerald!" Scales shook her head and held the jewel close. "Chaos.Control!" The black Emerald in her back flashed. She disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing on a building on the other side of the square. Shadow's jaw dropped. "That was the Chaos Control! How do you know how to do it? Who are you?!" Scales smiled a little. "I was born with the ability to use the power of the Emeralds, Shadow, as were you. As for my name." she said, pausing for dramatic tendency. "My name is Scales, the world's Ultimate Lifeform." "But that's impossible, I'm the Ultimate Lifeform!" Scales' smile broadened. "We both are. But for now, I must bid you farewell. Chaos Control!" She vanished again in a flash of green light.  
  
And so ends Scales' first level. How did you like it? What did you think of the scene where she piloted the jet for a moment? Come on, please tell me what you think of my writing! I'M SO LONELY! 


	5. Snivel Quarters

I'm sorry for this, but it's time for the next treasure hunt level! Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this level.  
  
Day 1, 7:30 PM  
  
Rouge looked around the interior of the pyramid, disgusted by what Snively had done to this ancient edifice. His face was everywhere. She had come to the pyramid, following the tracking device she had planted on Snively. She had taken up the chase for the villain after getting a massage, a dip in her hotel's pool, and a few hours of sunbathing followed by a nice dinner. Soon after entering the pyramid, his signal had vanished. That meant he had either found her tracking device, or he had transported out of range of her scanner. But that would have to mean he had a teleporter, and was going somewhere very far away. She had to get in to his control room, find where he went, and go after him. Her mission depended on it. She was facing a big metal door leading deeper into the pyramid. It was painted to look like Snively's face and had three keyholes, two for the eyes and one for the nose. She sighed. "Well, it looks like I'll have to find the keys for this door if I'm going after Snively." She said sadly. She looked at the door's face and grimaced. "This guy could really use a lesson in interior decorating." She said, walking away from the door and starting her search for the gate keys.  
  
Stage 5: Snivel Quarters. Mission: Find the 3 gate keys.  
  
Rouge was in a large red room with numerous pillars, several large altars, and a great platform in the center of the room with a pair of braziers on it. Hanging from the ceiling was a giant scorpion statue with Snively's face in lieu of the arachnid's head. There were lots of paintings on the walls and a few alcoves. There were three hallways, one on each side of the room and another on the wall behind the scorpion. There was also the passage that Rouge had followed in to this chamber from the outside of the pyramid, but that didn't count. She was about to head for the left door when she heard a humming noise. She looked to her right and saw a huge flying robot beetle flying around, patrolling the area. She hid in the shadow of a pillar as it passed by, preventing it from seeing her. The beetle flew through the left door, disappearing down the hallway. Rouge decided she should try the door on the right instead. The hallway was large and metallic, with a chain link floor over machinery. Her treasure senses lit up, and Rouge was surprised to see one of the keys was right in front of her! Unfortunately, it was in a cage, and she had no way to break it. Frustrated, she kept going, hoping she'd find a way to break open the cage later. As she walked past the cage, an E-1000 appeared in front of her and started shooting missiles. She ran around the missiles and kicked the robot to pieces. She continued down the hallway and was assaulted by a Kiki. The robot monkey threw a bomb at her. Rouge ducked as the explosive flew over her head, clattering down the hallway, strangely not exploding. The Kiki threw another bomb. Rouge grabbed it in midair and tossed it back at the Kiki, causing it to explode, killing the monkey. Rouge turned and saw the other bomb still hadn't blown up. Getting a notion, she picked up the bomb, went back down the hall, and threw it at the cage. It exploded, breaking the cage and freeing the key! Pleased, Rouge grabbed it and continued the way she had been going. She exited the hallway and entered a chamber that looked exactly like the one the gate was in, except there was no gate, the room was blue, and there was a giant fish with Snively's face instead of a scorpion hanging from the ceiling. Rouge wandered around the room, and was shocked when the beetle robot came out of the hallway at the end of the room! She quickly hid in the shadow of a pillar, letting the beetle pass. She got out from behind the pillar and started scouring the room, looking for the key. Her treasure sense didn't go off at all, so she was forced to move to the next room. She went through another metallic hallway. As she walked on the chain link floor, a Unidus flew towards her. She ducked down, allowing the robot to fly over her, and jumped up with a Screw Kick, smashing the machine. She continued down the hallway, smashing some more Unidus, and entered a chamber a little different from the others. The layout was mostly the same as the last two rooms. The color was yellow, and instead of an animal on the raised platform in the center of the room, there was a circular altar surrounded by stone snake heads, each pointing up and spurting fire. Rouge started forward and almost got hit by a missile. She looked up and saw an E-1000 at the top of one of the room's pillars. She ran towards the pillar, dodging the robot's shots, and started climbing up the pillar. The E-1000 peered over the edge, planning to fire straight down at Rouge, but was surprised to find she wasn't on the pillar. Confused, the machine did not hear Rouge pull herself up behind him, allowing her to sneak up and kick him off the edge. The E-1000 fell to the ground and exploded. That's when her treasure senses went off. She looked around from the pillar top and found the greatest source of the senses emanating near one of the altars. She glided from the pillar, landing on a wall above the altar. As she started to climb down, her senses got even stronger, indicating the key was hidden inside the wall. There was only one problem. A cage stacked on another cage blocked the section of wall the key was hidden in. She would have to break the cages before she could get to the key. Disappointed, she climbed to the top of the altar and dropped to the ground from there. She went to the hallway at the other end of the room to see if she could find anything to help her. She saw a Kiki in a cage with a missile pointed at it. The monkey chittered and tossed a bomb at Rouge. She dodged it. The bomb exploded right next to her, burning some of her fur. She gasped and glared at the android ape angrily, awfully tempted to shoot the missile at it. But she knew that if she did, she could lose her chance to get the key. When the Kiki threw another bomb, Rouge grabbed it and ran back to the Snake Altar room, leaving the monkey to scratch its head in confusion. She tucked the bomb under one arm and tried to climb the altar. It was a bit of a struggle, but she managed to do it. Good thing she got to the top of the altar when she did, just then the robot beetle came in the room, passing right by her altar, unable to see her. When the robot passed by, a relieved Rouge threw the bomb at the first cage, destroying it and causing the second one to fall, uncovering the blocked section of wall. She climbed up the wall and over to the uncovered section, looking carefully for the exact spot where the key would be. Her senses were blaring loud enough to make her head hurt when she was right over a scorpion's tail. She dug into the tail and popped out with the second key! Pleased with herself, she dropped down to the floor and went through the corridor with the caged Kiki, confident the beetle had passed by now. She ran past the Kiki, dodging the little monkey's bombs, and came to the next door, which was blocked by an E-1000. As it started to target her, she ran towards the robot and kicked it apart. Her way cleared, Rouge proceeded into one last room. It was similar in general appearance and layout to the other three. It was green, and had a large snake statue with Snively's face on it hanging from the ceiling. Her treasure senses went off, telling her the last key was in this room. She saw a spring placed right beneath the central platform that the snake was hanging above. She bounced off the spring and landed on a ledge containing the last key. However, this meant she needed one last bomb to complete her task. Backtracking to the caged Kiki, Rouge dodged more explosives from the monkey, grabbing a bomb as it hurtled for her and ran back to the Snivel Snake room. She bounced off the spring and landed on the ledge. She threw the bomb at the cage, destroying it. She grabbed the third key, ending the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Rouge stretched her arms. "Well, that was slightly difficult. Time to proceed with the plan. But first." She returned to the hallway with the caged Kiki. Dodging the explosives, stood behind the missile, her foot poised above the launch button. The monkey suddenly realized what she was going to do and screeched madly, begging her not to do this. Rouge grinned savoring the moment. "Say goodnight, monkey!" She stomped on the button. The missile launched and exploded, destroying the cage and the Kiki in it.  
  
Rouge unlocked the door, rode down the elevator just inside, crossed the circular pit of quicksand in the pyramid's core, and barged into Snively's inner sanctum. As the servant droids ran about, frightened, Rouge quickly made her way to the villain's control room, disgusted by the statues lining the walkway. She turned on the computer, also switching on her secret headset. "This is Rouge, reporting in. I've made it to Snively's inner sanctum. Yes, I'm checking his computer right now. The last thing he was looking up was something called the ARK." She paused, letting the person on the other line absorb all that. Rouge then asked, "Wasn't that the space colony shut down by GUN fifty years ago? That's what I thought. Why was it shut down? I see, nobody really knows? All right then. Maybe I'll find that out as well. Right, I'll get up to the colony. Rouge out. Oh, and don't forget my jewels." She cut her transmission off and set the teleporter's coordinates for the ARK. "Space, here I come!" she said as the teleporter activated, sending her away.  
  
Another treasure hunt completed. I think that was a little better than the last one. I hope that was a little better than the last one. Well, goodbye until next time. Please review! 


	6. Lost Colony

Here's Snively's next level. Hope you like it, even though we all hate him for what he's going to do. (Oh, in case you're wondering, Snively is slightly insane.) Disclaimer: I own the Snivel Walker and Scales.  
  
Day 1, 10:00 PM  
  
High above the planet orbited a great planetoid. Most people thought it no more than a second moon or satellite. However, it was in fact the abandoned space colony ARK. Deep within the darkened hallways of the colony, a lone figure in his walker cursed, suddenly realizing he was going the wrong way. A large elevator platform hovered up the huge shaft, stopping in front of a catwalk. The one using the elevator stepped on to the catwalk and stopped, checking his map for the hundredth time. Snively took a close look at the map he had taken up to the space colony with him, making sure he was reading it right. He would have made it to the control room much sooner if it weren't for the fact that he had ended up reading the map upside down and getting hopelessly lost for a few hours. But now, he was finally back on track. There was only a little more to go before he reached the control center. He sighed, hoping there would be stuff to blow up on the way to the control room, and went down the catwalk, entering the door at the end.  
  
Stage 6: Lost Colony. Mission: Find the way to the colony's core.  
  
Snively walked into a dark room. Of course, all the rooms in the ARK were dark, considering the colony had been shut down for the last fifty years. Snively flicked on the large lens on the front of the walker, the Power Laser doubling as a floodlight. He saw six Hunters with their guns pointed at him. He flicked the lights off and turned them back on. They were still there. "Damn. Wait, why am I angry? Now I get to blow shit up!" Happily, Snively reduced the Hunters to nuts and bolts and went through a corridor ahead. He went right, then left, following the hallway. He came to a room with a small ledge over a deep shaft. Hanging from the center of the shaft was a pulley. Snively hovered to the pulley and grabbed on, lowering down the shaft, between several nasty laser grids. The pulley stopped several meters above the floor, which had a series of lasers going horizontal over the shaft. He dropped from the pulley and carefully hovered down, dropping through holes in the laser grids. He exited the shaft and came to a long corridor. He was on a ledge above the floor of the big hallway, a floating platform hovering just before him. He stepped on the platform, which started moving down the hall. As he proceeded, Snively saw Beetles up ahead. He locked on and blasted them before they could shoot. He downed about a dozen Beetles before reaching the end of the hallway. He stepped off the platform and went through the door before him. He was now in a large room with some crates and a locked door on the right wall. After failing to blast the door open, Snively tried to figure out how to go through. He blasted all the crates out of frustration, because he hated having to go through puzzles. He was pleased to see a switch hidden underneath a crate. He stepped on the switch, unlocking the door. He went through it and found himself in another hallway like the one he had just used. To his right was a Rhino, charging towards him. Right as the robot tank was about to ram into him, Snively activated his boxing glove, smashing the machine. He saw several crates blocking the floating platform, so he destroyed them all before stepping on the lift. It moved forward, taking him down the long hallway. He had to blast several more Beetles before reaching the exit. He went through the door ahead and was in a room with a walkway running down the center of the room, pits of toxic waste on either side. On both sides of the walkway was a single floating platform. Snively walked to the end of the walkway and hovered to one of the platforms. It raised, taking him to the exit door. He went through it and entered a large square room with lots of wooden and metal crates along the floor and a large pillar in the center of the room. A bridge ran from the pillar to the wall, leading to a door. Snively looked for a way to get to the bridge. As he approached a couple of wooden boxes supporting an oddly shaped stack of metal boxes, a couple of Hawks swooped down. Snively blew the flying robots away and destroyed the wooden crates, dropping the metal ones to the floor. Realizing the metal crates now looked like a set of stairs; Snively hopped up the containers and hovered to the bridge. He went along the bridge and through the door, entering another long hallway with a floating platform. Two Hunters on the ledge before him fired on Snively, damaging the walker. Angrily, the deranged villain blasted away both Hunters and stepped on the platform, whisked down the hallway. He blasted every Beetle in sight, and got off on a platform filling the rest of the hallway's floor. Ahead of him was a platform too high to jump onto and two lifts at the bottom. Snively jumped on one of the lifts, which elevated to the top of the platform. He got off and walked forward, dropping to a bridge placed over a huge abyss. At the end of the bridge was a floating platform. Snively stepped on the platform, which lowered into the abyss. As he went down, Beetles, Hornets, and Hawks flew at him. Taking action, Snively blasted the flying robots whenever one made a pass at him, eventually getting to the bottom. Well, not really the bottom of the abyss, but the bottom of the elevator's descent. He stepped off the elevator platform and onto a catwalk. It turned right, leading to another platform. Snively walked on and was elevated to another short catwalk. He walked to the end, seeing a series of platforms ahead of him. He hovered across the platforms, careful not to lose his step and fall into the chasm. He had a few close calls when some Hornets flew at him from the darkness, shooting their homing missiles and nearly knocking him from the sky, but he made it. He hovered from the last platform to a door. He entered the door and found himself in a smaller chasm, with a door at a slightly lower level at the other end. He started to hover across the gap, noticing too late that the door was locked. He was relieved to see a Beetle floating right in front of the door. He blasted it, unlocking the door. It opened as he approached, and he went through. He was in yet another chasm, at the beginning of a long series of catwalks and gaps. Groaning, he started walking across the long and twisting circuit of catwalks, hovering over the gaps and shooting all the irritating enemies he saw before entering another room. It was more of a corridor, really, curving right up ahead. A Rhino charged out of the shadows and slammed the walker, nearly knocking it over. Snively furiously shot it with his cannon and went down the corridor. He came to the end, and was forced to go across a catwalk over another chasm. At the end of the catwalk was a floating platform. He stepped on the platform and descended into the void, shooting the numerous enemies that swarmed him in the darkness. At the bottom, he saw another long series of catwalks, gaps, and enemies. After reluctantly crossing the vast expanse of walkways with holes in them, Snively found a door and entered it, going through a long hallway and entering a room with a very high ceiling. A floating platform sat in the middle of the room. Snively grunted and jumped to the platform, which started raising him to the top of the room. He blasted the Hornets, Hawks, and Beetles lurking in the chamber before finally reaching the top. There was a door. Unfortunately, it was broken. Snively was this close to throwing a dangerous tantrum when he saw a dynamite pack strapped to the door. Grinning, he blasted the explosive, blowing the door open. He walked through and started screaming. He was in yet another chasm. He was so sick of them. Very disgruntled, he walked along the catwalk and onto the platform. As it went down, he started blasting everything that he thought moved, often hitting nothing but the wall. After taking out his rage and some robots and the walls of the pit, he saw another sequence of catwalks and holes below him. Oh no, he wasn't going to take anymore of this! He jumped off the platform while it was still overlooking the area and activated his jet engines, hovering to the door at the end of the room. He landed, only to find the door was broken and there was no dynamite pack in sight. He looked behind him and saw a missile pointed right at the door. He grinned. Even better than dynamite packs! He walked around the missiles and stomped the launch switch, firing the missile at the door and destroying it. Cackling, Snively went forward. Inside was one last really long hallway with a floating platform. He stepped on the platform and was whisked down the hallway, shooting at every Hornet and Hawk he saw, also blasting several harmless power conduits because he thought they were threatening him, stopping in front of a door. He passed through the door and was in a big room with a walkway between two toxic pits. At the other end was a door leading to the safer sections of the colony, much closer to the control room. The Goal Ring floated in front of the door. Snively walked through, ending the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
After wandering a little longer through the interior of the colony, Snively found the control room at last, built into a big shaft going straight through the middle of the giant space station. A catwalk led over the abyss to the controls in the center of the room, featuring a huge and complex control panel and inactive holographic screen, and in the very center of the cylindrical mass, a pillar with seven sockets in it. A tube- like mechanism was positioned over the center of the pillar, the purpose it served unreadable. Snively was pleased to see Scales was standing on the cylindrical mass, holding the green Super Emerald. "Ah, Snively, you're here at last. What took you so long?" she asked. Snively grimaced and got out of the walker, holding the gray Super Emerald. "That's none of your business! And you are to refer to me as Master, not Snively!" he hissed. Scales sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. Master, I see you brought the Super Emerald as I requested. Do you have any others?" Snively shook his head. "No, I ran into a bit of trouble getting back to my base. I didn't have time to start tracking down Super Emeralds. Anyway, I'm the one giving orders around here, not you! Tell me, why do we need the Super Emeralds? And what is this wish you are talking about?" Scales sighed, starting to wish she had picked somebody else to help her. Then again, what were the chances she'd find someone as evil yet slightly crazy as Snively? "Well, Snively.I mean, Master, as you know, the space colony ARK was run and constructed by Dr. Maria Robotnik, the greatest genius in over a hundred years." "Ahem! Second greatest, you mean." Said Snively, patting his chest. Scales rolled her eyes, thinking to herself that Dr. Maria would have wiped the floor with him in the intellect and personality category. "Right, the second greatest genius in over a century. Anyway, while she did achieve several miraculous discoveries through the use of Chaos energy, few people knew another achievement of hers. The government contract that allowed Maria to keep supplying the colony and keeping it in operation also required her to create a powerful weapon to be used for national defense, just in case a war broke out. The weapon was to be used as a sort of bluff, much like the nukes in the Cold War. It seemed pointless, since it didn't look like there would be a war anytime soon. But the politicians back then were a bit paranoiac, so the weapon was built." "Tell me about the weapon! Get to the point!" Snively said eagerly. Scales growled under her breath. "The weapon was a powerful machine capable of mass destruction, fueled by both the Chaos reactor core and the seven Super Emeralds, which were then in the colony's collection of finds. It is called the Eclipse Cannon. When fully charged, the cannon is capable of firing at a numerous level of settings, each ranging from a different level of power." "What are the ranges?" asked Snively. "At the lowest setting, the cannon can make a crater the size of Tokyo in its target. At the highest setting, the cannon is capable of blowing up an entire planet." Scales explained. Snively started drooling in ecstasy. "A weapon capable of blowing up an entire planet! Oh, where is it? Wherewherewherewherewherewherewherewherewherewherewherewherewherewherewhere? " Scales smiled. "You're standing in it." Snively blinked, surprised, and peered around the room. "If you want to use the cannon immediately, I'm afraid you will be disappointed. The only way to activate the cannon is to collect all the Super Emeralds." So saying this, Scales spun around and slammed the Emerald into a socket on the central pillar. Lights all over the colony flickered to life. The buttons on the control panel blinked and activated. Several cool circular holographic displays activated on multiple levels on the control tower. A blue beam shot from the device over the pillar, going inside of the machinery. "Please give me the gray Emerald." Snively tossed it over to Scales. She inserted it into another socket. The two Emeralds glowed, reacting to each other's presence. "Once we have enough Super Emeralds, you can harness the Eclipse Cannon's power and form a legacy of your own. You could even take over the world, if you wish." "Of course that's what I wish!" said Snively eagerly. "We'll get the rest of the Emeralds, and then the whole world will belong to the Snively Empire! Bwahahahahahaha!" "Do you really think it'll be that easy?" asked a voice from behind them. Snively spun around and saw Rouge. "Eh? The bat from before? What are you doing here?" he asked. "And how long have you been standing there?" "The entire time." said the white bat. Snively whirled around again. "Why didn't you tell me she was right there?!" Snively bellowed at Scales. She tried to keep a straight face. "You didn't ask, Master." Rouge cleared her throat. "As I was saying, it won't be as easy as you think to find the rest of the Emeralds. They're in many different places, and you'll need help finding and retrieving them." "And you're offering to help?" Snively asked sarcastically. "Of course. I'm Rouge the Bat, the world's greatest treasure hunter and jewel thief. I've taken some of the world's most priceless gemstones for my collection." Rouge said proudly. "Oh really? Why do you think somebody such as myself should work with someone the likes of you?" Snively asked pompously. Rouge pulled the dark blue Super Emerald from her dimension pocket. "Because I have a Super Emerald already!" she said. Snively gasped. "Give it to me!" He tried to grab the Emerald from her hands. She held it out of his reach, dangling it above his head. He was too short to grab it from her, so it was rather comedic to see him jumping up and down, trying to grab the jewel. Scales struggled not to laugh. "You can have the Super Emerald if you let me help you guys find the others." Said Rouge firmly. Snively made a few more halfhearted leaps, then gave up. "Fine! You can help! Just give me the Emerald already!" "Okay." Rouge threw the Super Emerald to Scales, who placed it in another socket on the pillar. Snively scowled, angry that she hadn't given it directly to him. "Now, how about we talk more about this in the morning? It's pretty late, and I'm sure even evil geniuses need their sleep." Placated by her compliment, Snively changed his tune. A little. "Rest, of course, I'm sure we could all use some sleep before our big day tomorrow! For tomorrow is the beginning of the end! Muhahahahahahaha! Come on, laugh with me! Muhahahahahahaha!" Scales and Rouge looked at each, rolled their eyes, and started halfheartedly following Snively's lead. In the back of her mind, Scales couldn't help liking Rouge. She seemed to be a hell of a lot better a companion than Snively would be. Perhaps they could be friends, once this was all over. After her mission was accomplished, and Snively was done away with.  
  
And so, the Dark team has united! Or have they? Each member seems to have their own agenda. We know Snively's, and have a hint about Scales' but what exactly is Rouge trying to do? Oh well, we won't find out for a while. In any case, stay tuned for the next action-packed chapter of the Dark Story! 


	7. Weapons Bed

Maverick, please don't kill Chao-lin! If you do you'll be no better than Snively! Anyway, here's the next chapter. I don't know if you'll see it before the deadline, just DON'T HURT THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAO! Disclaimer: I own the Snivel Walker, Scales, and this storyline even though it is admittedly based on Sonic Adventure 2.  
  
Day 2, 8:50 AM  
  
After a night's rest, the operation began. Claiming information from some contacts of hers, Rouge took the other two to a place that had not one, but three Super Emeralds in storage. Prison Island, the former Alcatraz. The island had been abandoned as a prison and claimed by GUN as a secondary base. Due to terraforming, the island was now much larger and covered in jungle. The old prison was somewhere in the jungle, converted into an armory. The main base was at the northern tip of the island, near a large harbor full of warships. On the beach of this same harbor, Snively looked down at Rouge from his walker. They had teleported behind GUN's defenses and were now preparing to steal the Emeralds. "Rouge, are you sure- " "For the last time, yes I'm sure the Emeralds are here!" Rouge snapped. "They're hidden in the facility, under top security. I'll handle it, of course." Scales walked back to her teammates. Her eyes had turned red on their arrival here, her hatred coming to the surface. "They haven't spotted us yet." She reported, struggling against the urge to run into the base and kill the soldiers. "Good, that gives us time to go over the plan!" Rouge and Scales groaned. Snively loved hearing himself talk, and tot hat end had explained the plan a dozen times already. "I'll cross the harbor and cause a distraction, allowing you two to sneak around the beach unnoticed and meet me at the base. From there, we will split up. I will escape to the southwest end of the island and wait for you two. Rouge, you will enter the base, infiltrate the holding area, and get the Super Emeralds." He turned to Scales and tossed a large package labeled "Snively Bombom" at her. "Scales, you will head towards the old prison, where they keep the armory. Plant these explosives all around the jungle on the way, and set the master bomb outside the armory. When Rouge has grabbed the Emeralds, we can set the bombs off and obliterate the entire island, erasing our tracks. Now, we only have one chance at this, so if either of you fail it's straight to the roboticizer with you girls!" With that, the criminal headed towards a ship in the harbor. Rouge grimaced. "What an asshole!" Scales shrugged. "His threat doesn't really mean much to me, half of my body is machine already. I doubt the roboticizer will be able to roboticize the other half, my DNA code is erratic, kept in tune only with the Chaos Emerald I possess." Rouge sighed. "Would that I could be as confident about my well- being. Come on, let's go."  
  
Stage 7: Weapons Bed. Mission: Rush into the military base.  
  
Snively was on a large aircraft carrier, with dozens upon dozens of deactivated Hunters sitting on the deck. Eager for some target practice, Snively started locking on and blowing up the Hunters two dozen at a time. As he proceeded, blowing up all the robots, he saw personnel rushing across the deck, trying to get inside before he could reach them. "Oh no you don't! Nobody escapes Dr. Snively!" He started shooting the soldiers, blowing them to pieces with each cannon or laser blast. He cackled and continued with his robot slaughter, leaving the bloodstained deck behind him. He saw some Blue Eagles fly overhead, dropping bombs as they passed. Snively's walker rumbled as it was damaged by the heavy payload, but was still quite functional. As the trio of fighters veered around and came back for another bombing run, Snively targeted the lead fighter and fired his laser blaster, killing the pilot. The plane spun out of control and crashed into the control tower of the carrier, causing a huge explosion. Pieces of flaming shrapnel flew all around, some of them hitting inert robots and destroying them. Others shredded through the remaining two fighters, causing them to explode in the air and create more shrapnel. The rapid pieces of metal flew through the air, piercing some of the large cylindrical fuel tanks and rupturing them. The resulting explosions could be seen all the way across the harbor. Snively laughed in maniacal glee as the exploding fuel tanks set off a chain reaction, destroying all the other fuel tanks on the ship and causing explosion after explosion. When it all stopped, the entire aircraft carrier was a mess, full of holes and liable to sink at any moment. The only thing to remain unharmed by the horrible devastation had been Snively. Pleased with his evil deeds, Snively walked to the end of the creaking and tilting aircraft carrier, looking out and seeing a catwalk over the water. He jumped from the edge of the aircraft carrier and hovered to the platform. He started forward, paused, and turned around. Locking on to an ammunition bay he could see through one of the ship's gaping holes, Snively backed all the way to the end of the long catwalk, keeping the intended area in his locked sights, and fired a laser blast. He immediately turned around and hovered to the nearest platform to his right. He landed just as the laser blast hit the ammunitions bay. The ship went up in an incredible blast, sinking beneath the waves as a burning hunk of metal. Snively grinned. "I SO love blowing things up." He got back to business and hovered to another platform, jumping on a spring there and landing on a catwalk. He went down the catwalk, shooting the large group of Hawks that swooped down at him. At the end of the catwalk, he could see a platform with several iron crates at the near end, blocking his path. Snively blew up the crates with his cannon and hovered across, proceeding down the catwalk until it ended. He saw a low platform ahead and hovered to it. There was a spring on the side, aiming up at a higher catwalk. He bounced off the spring and landed on the catwalk. As he started forward, some Blue Eagles flew towards them. He targeted and blasted them out of the sky before they could drop their bombs. He kept going and was blocked by a wall of crates. He blasted them down and went forward, stopping at a spring at the base of a tall platform. He bounced off the spring and landed on the platform. He walked forward and jumped off the edge of the platform, hovering to the catwalk ahead and below. He went down the catwalk, blasting every Hawk, Beetle, and Hornet he could see, before finding himself turning right and heading towards another aircraft carrier. He got to the end of the catwalk, a pulley in front of him. He grabbed the pulley and was raised up, facing the deck of the carrier. He jumped from the pulley and hovered to the aircraft carrier. He landed, and was pleased to see all the potential kills on the ship. There were loads of fuel tanks, lots of deactivated Hunters, and a dozen or so unoccupied fighter jets. He started down the carrier, blasting all the Hunters to scrap and blowing up ever fighter jet he could see. When he saw a trio of piloted Blue Eagles heading for him, Snively saw another chance for mayhem. He shot the lead plane, causing it to crash into the control tower. The shrapnel flew out from the explosion, killing the other two pilots. However, instead of just exploding, the planes were sent careening into separate fuel tanks, beginning the deadly chain reaction that annihilated everything on the surface of the ship except for Snively. He went to the end of the carrier and hovered to the next catwalk far below. He walked a ways down the catwalk before turning around to see the heavily damaged carrier. He targeted the ammunitions bay through one of the holes in the hull and fired, completely and needlessly destroying the carrier and sinking the ship beneath the waves. He laughed and hovered off the catwalk, landing on a moving platform. He waited until the platform got close to a stationary one and jumped off, hitting a spring and landing on a higher catwalk. He went down it, blasting at the Hawks that tried to shoot him, and came to the end of the catwalk, next to a metal crate. Across the gap was the next catwalk, the edge blocked by a row of iron crates under a row of metal crates Snively blasted away the iron crates, dropping the metal ones to ground level. He jumped on the metal crate next to him and hovered across the gap, landing on one of the metal crates. He dropped down and walked down the catwalk, his way blocked by a wall of iron crates. He destroyed the crates, revealing a spring at the base of a tall platform. He bounced off the spring and landed on the platform. He jumped off the other end and hovered to the next catwalk, heading across it and destroying all the enemies foolish enough to challenge him. After jumping over several more gaps and utilizing a couple of other moving platforms, Snively turned left and eventually came to another aircraft carrier. Rubbing his hands in glee, Snively grabbed the pulley and hovered to the deck. He was immensely disappointed and angry to find that there were no deactivated robots. Instead, there were lots of giant spinning maces. Not happy, he looked for a way over or around the maces. He was pleased to see several pulleys placed around the carrier. He hovered over the closest mace and grabbed the pulley, rising over the maces. He let go and hovered over several sets of maces, dropping and grabbing the next pulley. He repeated this pattern a few more times before seeing a trio of incoming Blue Eagles when he reached the height of the next pulley. He blasted the lead plane, sending it crashing into the control tower. The other two fighters avoided the explosion and flew closer, trying to get the doctor in their sights. Snively quickly locked on to the fighters and fired his laser blaster, sending the planes into the fuel tanks, as he had hoped. Snively was especially happy as the surface of the carrier went up in flames, seeing as how he had a bird's eye view of the destruction. When the multiple explosions were finally over, he hovered from the pulley and landed at the end of the carrier. He jumped off and hovered again, heading for a platform. As he neared it, he saw a lone Blue Eagle shooting towards him, probably wanting revenge for the death of his comrades. The doctor blasted the fighter into the sea and landed on the platform. He spun around and targeted the ammunition bay of the aircraft carrier through a hole in its hull. He fired his laser blaster, hitting the ammo and blowing up the ship, sending what was left of it to the bottom of the harbor. He hovered from the end, landing on a catwalk. He walked along the catwalk, destroying the Hawks that swooped down on him. He got to the end of the catwalk and saw another one ahead and to the right. He hovered to the catwalk and followed the brief span to its end, a pair of springs on the right side, aiming for a higher catwalk. Snively bounced off the spring and walked down the catwalk, bouncing off another set of springs on the side and landing on another catwalk, this one a bit longer. He moved faster when he saw what was at its end. From the end of a slightly elevated platform at the end of the catwalk was a bridge leading to a pier. The pier led up some stairs to a platform jutting out of the sea. Right on the platform was the entrance to the huge GUN base! Right on the slightly elevated platform was the Goal Ring, guarded by a pair of Rhinos. Snively blasted the Rhinos from the end of the catwalk, then jumped on to the platform. He walked through the Goal Ring, ending the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Snively went across the bridge, up the stairs, and on to the big platform next to the entrance of the base. Rouge and Scales were waiting for him. Just as he reached them, all three could hear a fairly loud gasp. They turned around and saw a tall yet fat man who had emerged from the jungle just a minute ago. He had lanky arms and legs, an egg-shaped body, a nice red jacket and black pants/shoes, goggles, a bald head and dark glasses. He also had a big bushy mustache. Snively grinned maliciously. "Robotnik, my old teacher! What are you doing here?" He pulled a nasty- looking gun from his glove compartment as the well-known scientist stammered incoherently, greatly frightened. "Scales, Rouge, get going. I'll kill this lardball and meet you at the rendezvous point." A little apprehensive, Rouge and Scales ran off. Snively sneered and advanced for Robotnik, forcing the large man towards the edge of the platform. "Now old man, let's finish what I should have ended years ago, shall we?" Snively asked, about to pull the trigger when he heard a loud clunk. He turned around and saw a large walker that looked kind of like a familiar red and pink plane at the other end of the platform. Its design was similar to his own, with a bazooka over the engine intake, hover jets on the legs, and a swiveling laser blaster. Strangely, this one had a Chao seated behind the blaster. The walker was piloted by one of his least favorite enemies, Amy Rose, the creation of Professor Big. Snively turned around and was naturally surprised to see Amy. "What? Amy? What are you doing here? Can't you see I'm trying to kill my old mentor here?" Amy started towards Snively. "Don't you dare hurt the doctor, Snively!" The evil scientist sighed and put the gun. "Fine, you want to play? Let's play! But I warn you; you're going to regret it. Robotnik, stay out of our way, I'll kill you later." Robotnik gulped and ran to the sidelines to watch. Snively rushed towards Amy, confident her girly little machine couldn't stand up to his walker.  
  
AMY  
  
Snively ran towards Amy. She fired a shot from her cannon. The evil doctor moved out of the way and locked on to her. Amy tried to run away as he fired a laser blast, but it chased after her and hit. The walker shuddered. Amy jumped, using the Boosters to hover over a surprised Snively. Angel spun around, locked onto Snively, and fired. Snively's walker was hit. As Amy landed, Snively turned around and hit her with his boxing glove, damaging her Passion. Amy responded with a strike from a hammer that sprang out of a panel on the front of the walker, just below the engine nozzle. They exchanged several hits with the glove and hammer before moving away from one another. Angel tried to lock on to Snively again, but he ran out of the way of the targeting laser. When he tried to lock onto them, Amy used the same strategy, running away from the laser. Snively shot at her several times with his cannon. Amy avoided most of the shots, but got hit twice, to her discomfort. She rapidly fired a dozen shots in a tight radius; hoping one of them would hit Snively. The evil doctor had tried dodging the first shot, but by moving away, six or so of the other shots struck him. Snively started getting angry. He pressed a few buttons on his control panel. A few slots opened up on the back of his legs. Several rockets launched from them, homing in on Amy. Surprised, she ran away as the rockets exploded behind her. Snively started preparing to fire again. Angel locked onto him and fired a laser blast while he was launching the rockets, hitting him and causing the walker to lurch. As Amy dodged the rockets, Snively growled and shouted, "No more games!" He slammed his fist into a button on the control panel. The lens on the front of the walker glowed and fired an incredibly huge and powerful laser, sweeping it around the area until it struck Amy's walker. She and Angel screamed as the Power Laser tore through their walker's hull, wrecking it. Wracked with small explosions, the Passion fell over. The force fields flickering off, Angel and Amy were roughly dumped onto the ground. Amy moaned and looked up in fear as Snively's walker came over and loomed over them. The evil doctor giggled. "Well, it's been fun, but now it's time to-" He paused, noticing a blinking light on his control panel, indicating he was being called by either Rouge or Scales, maybe even both. He scowled and looked down on Amy and the Chao. "Well, I'll let you off this time, but next time we meet, I'll finish this!" His walker's legs folded up, the machine transforming into his hoverpod. He flew away, disappearing behind the building.  
  
And so ends the last Snively level we'll see for a while. (Thank god.) Tune in next time as Rouge attempts to steal the Super Emeralds! 


	8. Security Hall

Yo! Here's the next chapter, and Rouge's first boss battle! Disclaimer: I don't really own anybody in this chapter.  
  
Day 2, 9:30 AM  
  
Rouge had quickly and easily gained entrance to the huge vault. She was now contacting Snively, Scales joining in on their radio conversation. "What is it, Rouge?! What's so goddamn important that you had to pull me away from blowing out the brains of a hedgehog, a Chao, and a fat man?" Snively screamed over the line. Rouge winced, her sharp hearing amplifying Snively's yells. "Doctor, I just called to tell you I'm in the vault. The Super Emeralds will soon be yours." There was a pause. "Oh, okay then. I'll let you off, for now. Scales, what do you have to report?" Snively barked. "I'm almost to the old prison. I've been planting bombs all over the jungle." Scales replied. "Were you seen?" Snively asked. "Only by a few dozen guards whom I disemboweled immediately after." She said calmly. "Alright. How much further until you reach the armory?" Snively asked. "I estimate five minutes, Master." Said Scales. "Excellent. Set the timer for; let's say, thirty minutes. Rouge, can you get the Super Emeralds out of the vault before time runs out?" asked Snively. Rouge smirked. "I can probably get all three Emeralds in five minutes. I'll see you both on the southwest point of the island." She cut off the line and started the treasure hunt.  
  
Stage 8: Security Hall. Mission: Steal the 3 Super Emeralds in 5 minutes.  
  
Rouge was in the corner of a massive chamber, towering high up. The center of the area was a giant metal tower, going up past many platforms, ledges, and one floor. Lining the room were three levels of big safes, each color-coded. The bottom was red, the middle was yellow, and the top was blue. There were plenty of robots roaming around the room, and some really big fans placed in pits in the floor. As Rouge started towards the central tower, her treasure sense acted up. She looked to her right and was surprised to see the red Super Emerald lying out in plain sight, floating right above one of the floor fans. Thinking this would be simple, Rouge glided off the end of the pit, trying to go down and grab the jewel. Unfortunately, the current from the fan kept juggling her above the Emerald, keeping her from dropping down to the red jewel. Getting an idea, she spun into a drill drive, pushing through the current and grabbing the Emerald before being sent back up by the fan. Thrilled, she glided out of the current and landed somewhat close to the tower. She went forward and was almost run over by a Rhino. She kicked it apart and kept moving. She walked around the tower and saw a pulley that would take her to the top floor of the hall. However, she thought she would take a look at the safes first to see if there was anything near them. Walking over to the closest wall of safes, she felt her senses go off. They pointed to a closed safe right behind a large falling weight. Even if there was a way to suspend the weight, she didn't have a way of opening the safe. Disappointed, she went back to the pulley and grabbed it, going up and reaching the top floor. She jumped and glided from the pulley and looked around. Behind her was the rest of the tower, going up a bit before ending in an open platform with two very high walls made of bars, and a few crates. Scattered around the floor were some large boxes full of spare parts for robots and moving laser beams. Rouge carefully wandered around the room, rolling under lasers whenever possible and killing the Rhinos that tried to attack her. When she was getting close to a switch on a yellow platform, Rouge's senses went off near one of the large boxes. She looked up, avoiding the lasers, and saw the purple Super Emerald floating above her. Running around the beams, Rouge climbed on the nearest box, jumped off the top, and glided into the Emerald, grabbing it. Only one more to go! Too bad she didn't know how to open the safe or stop the weight. She only had three minutes left, now. She wandered around the top a bit, eating up more time. She saw a switch on a red platform and wondered if it had anything to do with the safes. She hit the switch and used the same pulley as before to get back to the bottom floor. She was happy to see that all the red safes were now open, but the weight was still falling in front of the necessary safe. She started to despair, then saw a spring on top of the weight. Curious, Rouge climbed up the wall of the tower and glided to the yellow level of safes. When the weight had risen to her level, she dropped on and waited until the weight was at the top of its ascent. Once she did, she bounced off the spring and hurtled through the air, landing on a beam near the top of the room. She saw a spring in the middle of the beam. She bounced off it and flew right up to the ceiling, hitting a switch that had been directly over the spring. As she fell, she started to glide back to the bottom of the room, hoping she didn't run out of time. She saw the weight was suspended in the air, motionless. She grinned and dropped to the ground, running in to the safe behind it and grabbing the light blue Super Emerald, ending the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Rouge put the Emerald away. "I've done it! And I still have about a minute to spare! Now to get out of.huh?" Rouge blinked, her treasure senses going off. She had all the Super Emeralds, but there was still something here. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she followed her senses and was surprised to find it was on the very top of the tower. It must be something very good to warrant being detected from this distance! She used the pulley to get to the top floor, then climbed up the tower, her senses indicating it was at the very top. Not noticing she had run out of time, Rouge got to the top and saw a green jewel that was slightly smaller than a Super Emerald but looking exactly like one lying in the center of the room. She couldn't it believe it. It was a Chaos Emerald! What was one of those doing in GUN's possession? She shrugged and walked to the middle of the room, picking up the Emerald. She wondered why GUN would just leave important treasures like these out in the open. She checked her watch and was surprised to see she had passed the five-minute mark. "Damn! Looks like I lost my bet. Then again, I did grab the Supers before I hit the mark. So I guess this doesn't count." She headed for the edge of the tower. "I'd better get out of here. The bomb's probably been armed already. I'd better get a move on!" Just as she was about to jump down, she leapt backwards as a large machine suddenly flew up. It looked exactly like the Hotshot Scales had defeated, except it had no legs. Instead, it only had some powerful jets. Rouge backed away, nervous. Apparently she had triggered some sort of silent alarm. "Uh oh." She murmured. Maybe she shouldn't have taken time to get the Chaos Emerald. The pilot of the flying mech radioed his superiors. "This is R-1/A Flying Dog of Scorpion Troop calling in. Have spotted the bat trespasser. Sensors indicate she has possession of all three Super Emeralds and the confiscated Chaos Emerald." "Copy that. Retrieve the Emeralds at all costs." Said the voice at the other end. "Roger. Over and out." The pilot started flying towards Rouge.  
  
R-1/A FLYING DOG  
  
The flyer soared around the tower, firing his machine gun at Rouge. The gem thief started running as the bullets hi the floor behind her. She tried hiding behind crates, only to see them shatter from the gun's fire. Getting an idea, Rouge ran over to one of the bar walls on the side of the tower and climbed up it. The pilot couldn't aim his machine gun up, so was forced to keep firing at the ground while Rouge was safe on the wall. Frustrated, the pilot stopped flying around and started to open his missile bays. Knowing what was going to happen, Rouge let go of the bars and started gliding for the flyer. After a few seconds, eight missiles launched from the boxes on the flyer. Rouge swerved in the air, gliding past the missiles and ramming her spiked fists right into the cockpit, cracking it. She fell to the ground and started running as the Flying Dog started retaliating with machine gun fire. She ran across the floor, dodging the bullets, and climbed up the bar wall to safety. After a few minutes of struggling to get his walker to point upwards from near the base of the wall, the pilot moved back a few yards and started to open his missile bays. Rouge let go of the wall, started to glide a bit, and launched into a drill drive when she was over the flyer, damaging the cockpit some more. She fell down and started running as the Flying Dog started his machine gun tirade again. She quickly dodged the bullets and climbed to safety on the bar walls and waited for the flyer to start shooting missiles. She was surprised when the pilot moved back a bit and started aiming the laser cannon on his underside, a laser sight coming out as the cannon began building power. As the sight started moving up the wall towards Rouge, our thieving heroine realized she was in trouble. She dropped from the wall and started gliding around the flyer, moving closer with each circle while outmaneuvering the laser sight. When the cannon had reached its maximum capacity, it fired a ridiculously huge laser blast that was bigger than the thing that had fired it! Once the laser had fired, the pilot started to open his missile bays. Rouge glided towards him, smashing into the cockpit and cracking it some more. She dropped tot he ground and broke into a run as the Flying Dog once again began firing machine gun bullets. Rouge climbed up the bar wall, knowing the pilot would try to use the laser again. She was right. The energy ball started forming at the cannon's nozzle and the laser sight started moving up towards her. She instantly started gliding straight for the Flying Dog, fully aware that the laser sight was locked on to her. As the laser was almost fully charged, Rouge was positioned over the cockpit, above the cannon's range of fire. As the pilot started moving back, Rouge started a drill drive, hitting the cockpit and causing yet more cracks in the cockpit. It would only take one more hit to finish the job. As she dropped to the ground, Flying Dog started charging up the laser cannon again. Rouge ran for the wall and climbed up it, not taking a minute to stop seeing as how the laser target was almost on her, and instantaneously started gliding. The cannon reached maximum capacity and fired, the laser blast just missing her as she passed over where the target system had seen her mere milliseconds ago. She continued gliding as the pilot cursed and tried to fire the cannon before it was charged properly, and smashed into the cockpit one last time, shattering the glass and killing the pilot. He slumped back in his seat. Rouge quickly glided off from the flyer as it crashed to the ground, a smoking wreck. Rouge smiled, victorious. "Well, that takes care of that." She said. "Now to get out of here!" Just then, a feminine computer voice came on over the P.A. "Warning. Vault security guard terminated. Initiating lockdown." A heavy blast door slammed shut over the vault's only exit, the sound of its closing echoing all throughout the Security Hall. Rouge had only one thing she could possibly say. "F#$%!"  
  
Rouge has gotten four precious jewels in this heist, but at what cost? Will she be able to escape before the bomb goes off? Find out next time! 


	9. White Jungle

I just realized something. In my Meteor Herd and Final Run chapters, Knuckles mentioned that the Super Emeralds have never left the Island before the Dearth Snivel incident, yet the Super Emeralds were also used in the ARK years before that. I have an explanation to fill this plot hole. When Maria was starting construction on the ARK, she convinced the leaders of Angel Island to lend her the Super Emeralds indefinitely for research purposes. Since the Guardian of Angel Island's main purpose was to guard the Master Emerald, there was no need to tell him that the Super Emeralds were leaving the island. When the ARK was raided, Maria managed to eject all the Chaos and Super Emeralds on the station before GUN could get them, letting them fall to the planet below. Due to an unbelievable series of coincidences, all seven Super Emeralds were returned to Angel Island, and none of the populace knew they had ever been gone. (Seven copies had been left in their place when they were taken off the island.) I hope that makes sense. Disclaimer: I only own Scales.  
  
Day 2, 9:41 AM  
  
Scales was walking through the jungle, approaching the rendezvous point when Rouge came on the line, contacting both her and Snively. "Snively? Scales? This is Rouge." "Rouge, where are you? Do you have the Emeralds?" Snively asked impatiently. "I have the Emeralds, but I'm trapped inside the vault. It looks like I'm not much of a treasure hunter after all." The bat said sadly from her spot on top of the tower in Security Hall. "I see. Don't worry Rouge, we'll get you out before the bomb goes off." Said Snively. Cutting Rouge from the line, he communicated with Scales. "Scales, get to the vault as quickly as possible!" "Right, I'll get Rouge." Said Scales, starting to turn around. "Rouge? Who cares about Rouge?" he asked. "Get me the Super Emeralds! Leave that filthy rodent to be incinerated!" Scales protested. "But why?" Snively snorted. "She humiliated me earlier! Nobody humiliates Dr. Snively and gets away with it!" "But-" "But nothing! Bring me the Emeralds, and let Rouge die! I doubt you'll be able to get to the vault and back before the bombs go off, so just warp out of there once you get the Super Emeralds, I'll meet you back at the ARK." Snively cut off his radio. Scales' head sank. "Yes Master." She muttered. Then she frowned. "Screw Snively. I'm not going to let Rouge get killed! I'll get Snively his Emeralds all right, but I'm not going to let one bat bite the dust just because she made fun of him earlier!" Switching into battle mode (you know, the spikes and red eyes) Scales ran to the north.  
  
Stage 9: White Jungle. Mission: Cut through the jungle in 10:00.  
  
Scales ran down a steep hill and into a long, curved wooden half pipe. The speed she picked up from running down the hill allowed her to run along the side of the half pipe, following the curve. After a bit of running, she was nearing the end of the half pipe. She could see a spring mounted on a floating platform off the end of the path. Scales jumped at the end and used a Homing Kick to get to the platform, bouncing off the spring and to a vine hanging from a tree. She grabbed the vine and started swinging around the tree, letting go when she was lining up with a platform at the level of the water and landing on it. She ran around a platform or two and obliterated a pair of Hunters up ahead with some Tail Whips. She stopped in front of some fences, seeing a set of springs on the ground. She bounced off the springs and was hurtled into the air, back in the direction she had come from. She soared through the air and landed on a high ramp, running down it and into a loop. She ran through the loop and launched from a set of jump plates at the end, landing on a platform in the water. Jumping off the raised portion she had landed on, Scales quickly killed the spiked Rhinos that charged at her. She ran forward and saw a Hunter in front of a large fence. She smashed the Hunter and smashed the fence down with a powerful kick. She ran down the exposed path, ripping through a group of Rhinos and running past a moss-covered log, stopping in front of another large fence. She kicked it down and ran to the end of the path, stopping to the side of a vine with large handles placed between a pair of big thorns. Curious, she grabbed the vine and was swung upward as the vine flipped, sending Scales onto the edge of a platform built into the tree that had been beside her. She killed the Hunter in front of her before it could shoot, and kicked the fence blocking entrance into the tree down. She ran through the tunnel inside of the tree trunk, coming out on a platform with a vine exactly like the last one, except it went straight across the watery expanse to a ledge on another tree. She grabbed the vine and was flung across the gap, landing on the ledge and killing a Hawk blocking the fence. She kicked it down and ran through the tunnel beyond, coming out at the top of a ramp. She ran down the steep ramp, going through a short tunnel and straight into a half pipe. She ran along the curve of the half pipe, following the trail as it corkscrewed around and around, finally coming to an expanse of level ground. She kept going and reached a balcony at the other end of a tree tunnel, a set of jump pads at its end. Not stopping for a second, Scales ran on the pads and was launched through the air, grabbing onto a vine. She swung around a tree, letting go at a point and hurtling towards a platform in the water. She landed between a pair of torches, some more platforms tot he side of the big one and a Hunter and a pair of Rhinos ahead. She quickly wiped them out and ran ahead, smashing through a fence in her way. She came to a cliff with another weird vine at the bottom. She grabbed on and was swung up and over the cliff, dropping on to a palm tree. She watched as a spiked Rhino roved around below. When its back was to her, Scales dropped down and smashed the robot to pieces with her tail. She broke through another fence ahead and came to a series of small platforms rising from the ground of a larger platform below. Scales dropped to the ground below, breaking the pair of Hunters and lone Rhino that attacked her, and saw a switch. She hit it, and a bunch of Beetles appeared at the end of the platform, forming a long, curving path to a platform across the water. Scales ran to the end and jumped off, Homing Kicking her way along the line of Beetles. She landed on the small platform at the end of the chain and grabbed the pulley she saw on it. She was lifted up to a ledge high on the tree, guarded by a Hunter. She hit the Hunter with a Homing Kick and broke down the fence behind it, revealing a tunnel. She ran through the tunnel and came out on a balcony with a spring. She bounced off the spring, grabbed a vine, swung around a tree and landed on another platform coming out of the water. She saw a large falling weight and a fence blocking her path. There was a Hunter and a few Rhinos on the other side of the path. Scales jumped on to the weight as it got to its lowest point and leaped off when it rose over the fence, coming down with a Homing Kick that killed the Hunter immediately. As the Rhinos rushed towards her, she jumped into the air, causing them to crash into one another. She ran to the end of the platform and bounced off a spring, landing on another platform with a few small trees. She followed the platform along a nice forest path, hurrying because she knew time was running out. She ran along the path and down a steep ramp, following it down and through another half pipe. She followed the curve of the half pipe and eventually came to level ground, ending in a jump plate. She launched from the jump plate and flew through the air, landing at the mouth of a cave dug into a tree. She ran into the cave and dropped into a large, multi- tiered room. There was a weight in one corner and no visible enemies. Scales saw a stack of wooden crates in the back of the room and broke them down, revealing the exit. She ran through the winding tunnel now open to her and opened into the fresh air on a balcony next to what Scales decided to refer to as a bungee vine. She grabbed the vine and was flung across the water, landing on a large platform built onto a tree. She killed the group of Hunters that mobbed her, as well as the following Rhinos, and looked for a way off the platform. Seeing a suspicious lone crate, she broke it and found it was covering a hole. She dropped down the hole and landed on a platform with another bungee vine on her left. She grabbed the vine and was flung across the water to a platform with a spring on it. She bounced off the spring and landed on a platform higher up the tree with another spring. She bounced off it as well, grabbing a vine and swinging around the tree. She let go of the vine and shot towards a platform far away, landing without much event. (Oh, I thought I should mention something. Shadow can slow his descent with the jets in his shoes, right? Well, Scales can do the same thing, only with the anklets she wears. Not to steal from Tails, but I guess you could call them her Jet Anklets.) She ran forward and found three platforms jutting from the ground. There were two big ones connected by a smaller one in the middle. She jumped on the big one and performed an immediate Homing Kick, killing the Hunter who was readying his laser gun to fire. She continued down the long path ahead of her, eventually jumping over a tree stump and finding another bungee vine. She grabbed the vine and was flung across the water, landing on another path. She ran down the path, killing several Hawks and Hunters. She neared a falling weight. She waited until it started to rise, then quickly rolled under it before it could fall. She kept going and saw a large fence blocking her path. She smashed through it, crushing the Hunter who had been waiting for her. She saw she had reached the end of the path, nothing but a raised platform and spring pointing above and behind her at the platform's base. She bounced off the spring and landed on a higher level. She ran along the platform, grabbing a bungee vine and swinging up to a ledge higher up the tree. There was a Hunter, which she expediently killed, but no fence. She looked around, and chuckled when she saw a series of platforms right behind her. Bunkering down, knowing she was running out of time, she started to jump across the platforms. She reached a gap with an electric Beetle floating ahead, another platform behind it. Scales waited for the Beetle's force field to lower then hit it with a Homing Kick, using another Homing Kick to reach the platform. She grabbed a bungee vine on the platform and was shot across the large gap to her right, landing on another platform. She saw another electric Beetle in the gap before her. She waited for the force field to lower and Homing Kicked the robot. Another, ordinary Beetle appeared as she destroyed the first one. She blew that one up, and another appeared. Before she could fall, she Homing kicked it and another appeared. She Homing Kicked each Beetle that appeared before her, eventually getting across a large gap and landing on a platform. She ran down the platform, dropping from the edge and slowing her descent with her Jet Anklets. She reached a platform far below and saw a group of Laser Hunters aiming for her. As they fired their deadly laser beams, she ran towards them, dodging the beams and destroying the robots. She ran to the left side of the platform, grabbing a bungee vine. She was flung across the water, landing on a ledge immediately in front of another bungee vine, causing her to get swung into the air to a platform higher up. She was flung forward into yet another bungee vine, shooting across the gap and onto yet another platform. To her left was a fence, guarded by a Rhino. She killed the Rhino and smashed down the fence, coming to a grassy balcony with a spring on it. She bounced off the spring and was launched into the air, grabbing a vine. She swung on the vine, going around the tree a couple of times before letting go and shooting for the top of a tall ramp. She landed at the top and started running down, avoiding some spiked balls in her path. As she picked up speed, she ran into the following half pipe and kept going, dodging more spiked balls. She followed the path as it corkscrewed around and around, nearly defying the laws of gravity and physics as she was able to stay right on the ground beneath her feet. The corkscrew leveled out into a straight run, ending in a jump plate. Scales hit the jump plate at top speed, launching off it and hurtling over what seemed to be half a mile of water. She landed on a small platform and was immediately bounced off of a spring, heading right into a vine. She instinctively grabbed the vine and swung around the tree, her momentum very great at this point. She let go of the vine and hurtled straight for a ledge on another tree, a Laser Hunter spotting her and aiming its cannon. Scales started into a Homing Kick before she was even at the platform. She smashed right through the robot and the fence behind it, landing in a tunnel. She had to roll a little to stop her momentum. Once she had stopped, she went down the tunnel and came out in a large clearing. There were many trees clustered around, their roots rising from the water and forming pathways of a kind. In the middle of the clearing was a medium- sized platform/island rising from the water. Scales went out of battle mode, seeing the Goal Ring hovering at the end of the platform she was standing on, near a root. As she jumped through the Goal Ring, ending the level, Scales thought she could hear a rocket flying overhead.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Scales jumped onto the nearest root. She walked a little and heard a thump, as if from something falling, then a voice from the island. "You again." it growled. Scales whirled around and was very surprised to see Shadow. "Shadow? What are you doing here of all places?" Scales asked. "I got arrested. Would you happen to have anything to do with that?" he asked suspiciously. Scales shook her head. "I don't think so. I'm only here to help get more Super Emeralds." Shadow glared at her. "Really? Why do you need the Emeralds, anyway? And why are you working for Snively? He's pure evil!" Scales sighed. "I know Snively's evil, Shadow. But I need his help. It's the only way I can fulfill my mission." "What mission?" Scales shook her head. "Sorry, but I can't tell you that. Or why I need the Emeralds. Look, when this is all over, I promise I'll tell you everything, what I'm doing, how we know each other, your forgotten past, okay?" She started getting antsy. She only had maybe fifteen, sixteen minutes left. "Shadow, I apologize but I really have to go. I can't stay here much longer." "Why? Too scared to fight me?" Shadow asked. Scales' eyes narrowed, getting angry despite herself. "You know, I think I just got a little more time." She smiled a little wistfully, memories racing through her mind. "You know, this'll be just like our old sparring sessions. Too bad we never did find out which of us was stronger. Maybe now's the chance to find out." She leaped off the root, landing on the island. "Since I can sense no Chaos Emerald on you, it would be unfair for me to use my own Chaos powers. I will only use my normal attacks. I promise you one thing else, old friend. I will not kill you." She started towards him.  
  
SHADOW  
  
Scales ran at Shadow. He jumped over her and hit her with a Homing Attack. She grunted and spun around, smacking him with her spiked tail. As he reeled back, she rushed over and started hitting him repeatedly with punches and kicks, drawing a little blood. As she threw him away, Shadow got up and rolled into her with a somersault. She was knocked back a few steps. She jumped into the air and hit Shadow with a Homing Kick. When she tried to hit him with another Homing Kick, Shadow jumped, deflecting the attack. She bounced off and tried again. He deflected her and tried his own Homing Attack. She used his own strategy and deflected him with a jump. He backed away from her, trying to find a weakness. Scales somersaulted towards him. Shadow jumped over her and hit her with a Homing Attack from behind when she uncurled. It struck her life support system. She stumbled a moment, then turned around, looking angrier than before. Shadow smiled to himself, thinking he had found a weakness of some kind. Scales surprised him again by curling into a ball and spinning in place. Spikes shot out from concealed pockets in her body and she rolled towards him in a dangerous spindash. Shadow jumped out of the way, and Scales almost rolled off the edge of the island. She uncurled, her spikes retracting, allowing Shadow to Homing Attack her from behind again. Right before he hit her, Scales spun around, knocking him away with her tail. As he fell on the ground, she hit him in the chest with a Homing Kick, then whacked him with her tail again. She waited patiently as Shadow got to his feet. "Ready to stop?" she asked. "No way." She smiled. "I was hoping you would keep going." She swiped at him with her claws. Shadow ducked under the swing and delivered an uppercut to her chin, followed by a roundhouse kick that knocked her off her feet. He bounced onto her before she could get up, causing a little damage. She backflipped suddenly, knocking Shadow away and landing upright. He somersaulted towards her. She jumped over him and whacked him with her tail as he got up. Shadow tried to hit her with a Homing Attack and was deflected. Scales curled up into a ball and started spinning again. Shadow ran over and hit her with a Roundhouse Kick before the spikes sprouted; knocking her out of the spindash before it even started. He hit her with another roundhouse kick at the exact second she swung her tail around, and both were knocked back. They stopped for a moment, panting. When they caught their breath, they were about to start the battle anew when a loud beeping could be heard. "Oh, hold on, I've got a call." Said Scales. She tapped the side of her head, activating her comm unit. "Yeah, what is it doc?" Dr. Snively's shouted through the radio, echoing through the jungle. "Scales, what are you doing?! The island's going to blow up in eight minutes! Where are the Super Emeralds?!" Shadow's eyes widened. "Blow up!?" Scales switched off her comm unit. "Yeah, the island's going to blow up. That's kind of why I had to go when you challenged me to the fight. I suggest that you get off the island by any means possible before it's too late." With that, she turned and ran away, jumping onto one of the roots and disappearing into the jungle. She raced even faster now, praying that Shadow could get off before it was too late. Moving at top speed, it took her half a minute to get out of the jungle, three minutes to race across the beach and three minutes to dash through the base. She blasted down the door to Security Hall with her Serpent Strike, and ran to where the pulley to the top floor was. Only a minute left. She grabbed the pulley and was elevated to the top floor of the vault, losing twenty seconds. She looked up, seeing the ceiling of the room. "Chaos Control!" She was warped to the top of the room, falling from the ceiling. She barely slowed her descent, losing ten seconds. Rouge looked up, hopeful as Scales landed. "Scales!" she said. "You're here to save me?" Only fifteen seconds left. "There's no time! Get over here!" Scales yelled. Rouge got up and started running towards her. Scales ran to meet her. Ten seconds left. Rouge wasn't moving as fast as Scales had hoped. She was obviously tired. As Scales got within a few yards of Rouge, she jumped, moving towards the bat. Five seconds left. Scales yelled, "CHAOS CONTROL!" right as she made contact with the bat. They vanished in a flash of green light, just as the timer got to zero and the bombs went off, covering Prison Island in fire and reducing the former prison to an inhospitable rock once again.  
  
And so the Prison Island section ends. Tune in as we begin the transition to the final chapters in the Dark Story. PLEASE REVIEW! 


	10. Sky Rail

Here is yet another chapter in this Dark tale, and more of Scales' past is revealed. Read on. Oh, and I don't like the thought of Snively being beaten up by guys in Chao suits. That seems kind of disturbing. Instead, how about having him beaten up by several powerful Chaos Chao? It would be cute, and a lot more painful for Snively, considering the strength of these immortal Chaos! Disclaimer; I only own some things I've already talked about, so I won't say it again.  
  
Fifty-eight years ago, 7:45 PM  
  
From Observation deck B on the ARK, two people watched the planet slowly rotate beneath them. Little did they know that eight years after, there would be a death in this room. The two people who would be there then were the same ones that were there now, a slightly younger Scales and her mother. "It's beautiful, isn't it Scales?" asked her mother. "Yeah.what's it like on Earth, Mom?" Scales asked. The mother hesitated, then answered. "The planet's surface and the people on it are not always as nice or beautiful as it seems from up here. That is, in part, why I came up to space, to get away from it all." "Away from what all?" "From the crowds, the pollution, the crime rate.the list goes on." Her mother said sadly. Scales was puzzled. "But if you want to stay away from that, then why do you make things to help the people down there?" The mother laughed a little. "That's precisely why, Scales To help the people. As have every member of my family before me, going all the way back to the founding of Eggman Industries in 2050, I have dedicated my life to helping the citizens of the world through the power of science. As did my predecessors, I strive to improve the lives of the poor and unfortunate. My father created achievements such as the antigravity generator and the solid hologram. His father made things like the first sentient robot and shapeable force fields. As for me," she said, with a hint of a smirk. "I have made many, many things. This colony, the Chaos drive, the Omochao servant droid, and my greatest accomplishment of all." "The Eclipse Cannon?" Scales asked. Her mother winced. "No, not the blasted Eclipse Cannon! I'm talking about you and your brother." Scales was taken aback. "We're your greatest creations?" Her mother nodded. "Yes. All of my inventions have benefited the people of the world in some small way, helping to make the world a bit of a better place. But you and your brother are going to change it more than a little, you will revolutionize the entire planet!" "How?" Scales asked, confused and uncertain. "By being yourselves. You can be anything you want once you are released onto the Earth, Scales. You can be a politician, an artist, a scientist like myself, and maybe even a crime fighter. No matter what you and your brother choose, you will take to it, doing your best to fulfill my dream of making the world a place where you don't run into gangs if you walk New York streets at night, or have to worry about things like drugs or stillbirth. It will take a lot of time, I don't deny that, but that's why I made sure you both absorbed lots and lots of Chaos energy when you were just growing in test tubes, to make sure you both really were the Ultimate Lifeforms." Her mother explained. "But what exactly is it that makes us any different than you or anyone else on the colony? Why are we the 'Ultimate Lifeforms'?" Scales asked. Her mother grinned. "Many things, really. Intelligence that might rival my own, great artistic skill, heightened learning abilities, to just name a few. Why, you were walking on your hind legs two minutes after you were born! Of course, you collapsed a second later due to unstable DNA that resulted in the biomachinery spread throughout you now, but that's not really the point. Anyway, above all of these traits is one other thing to prove that you are at the peak of the evolutionary chain." "What's that?" Scales asked, curious. "Immortality!" she said, looking a little wild. "Eternal life, the dream of my kind since the beginning. Your smallest quark is loaded with Chaos energy, enough to make you, your brother, and anything produced from your DNA (in case you're having kids) immortal. The Chaos energy will preserve your looks forever once you've reached the comfortable age of twenty, just becoming an adult. You will live forever and continue my work long after the last of my family passes on, making the humans and anthropomorphs happy." Her grin got broader. "And that, in the end, is what your ultimate goal is Scales. To make the people happy, without becoming a comedian."  
  
Scales blinked back tears, shutting the long-ago memory away in her memory banks. She gazed out the window of Observation deck B, at the Earth far below, and thought once again how she would do what her mother had asked. She would make the people happy. But she would also have revenge for what had happened on that fateful day, a week after when she and her brother had both reached their twentieth birthdays and were ready to finally descend from the heavens and do their duty. For what GUN had done when they came to the colony. For what they had done to her. Her thoughts were interrupted when Rouge entered the room. "Scales, there you are! I've been looking all over for you. What are you doing here?" "Remembering what I'm fighting for." Scales said. "Ah," said Rouge, a little curious. "And what might that be?" Scales shook her head. "I cannot tell you that, Rouge. But speaking of secrets, where did you get the dark blue Super Emerald from anyway?" Rouge shrugged. "I stole it." "And you just happened to have it on hand when you followed Snively up here?" Scales asked skeptically. Rouge nodded. "Of course! I carry all my most precious jewels with me, the ones that I don't want to leave in my secret cave. See, I have the Hope Diamond right here!" said Rouge, pulling out the priceless jewel stolen from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum only last year from her dimension pocket. "Oh, okay then." Said Scales, still a little suspicious. Rouge hid the Emerald as Snively barged into the room. When Scales had brought back Rouge, she expected a harsh reprimand or worse, considering she had disobeyed his orders by rescuing her. Oddly, Snively hadn't seemed to mind at all. "Everything's all set. Some on you two, it's time to show the world the destructive power of the Eclipse Cannon!" "Are you sure we can fire that thing? We only have six Super Emeralds, after all. I thought we needed all seven." Said Rouge. "Actually, we could have fired the Cannon with only one Emerald, if we were willing to wait a month or so for it to charge. With each Emerald placed in the sockets, the charge-up time for the cannon gets shorter. All seven Emeralds will allow us to recharge almost immediately." Explained Scales. "So how long will it take for the Eclipse Cannon to recharge with six Emeralds?" asked Rouge. "Twenty-eight hours. Now come on! Let's get this demonstration started! I will show the people of the world the power of the Snively Empire!" Snively said, cackling. Rouge and Scales rolled their eyes and followed him from the room.  
  
Day 2, 8:00 PM  
  
All over the world, the same message was played as every television flickered to life, every station and communications satellite temporarily overridden. Dr. Snively stood proudly against a blue CGI background, his symbol, a cartoonish picture of his face, in the back. Words flew around behind him, such as "Snively Empire", and "I am great, I am wise, I am genius, I am not short, I am not ugly, I am not bald, I do not have a huge nose, I am Emperor." Snively grinned evilly. "Greetings, people of Earth, I am Dr. Snively, soon to be ruler of the greatest empire in the history of the planet! Namely, all of you little countries will belong to me! Muhahahahahaha!" He paused, then continued. "I am transmitting live from the space colony ARK, which will be my headquarters in the new era. I have attempted to conquer the world many times now, but this time I will succeed, for I have an incredible weapon at my disposal. Don't believe me? Well then, perhaps a little demonstration is in order." The shot of Snively changed to show a live broadcast from a commandeered satellite above the world, allowing all that were watching to see what was happening. Up in space, the south pole of the ARK started glowing green. Green cracks appeared all along the planetoid's bottom hemisphere, and then the whole thing exploded, revealing the planetoid's true form. Now visible through the large cloud of small asteroids that was all that remained of the southern hemisphere was a flat metal surface on the underside of the remaining hemisphere. Towers and structures shot up from the surface, a veritable city. In the center of it all was a great conical needle. The planetoid, or should I say colony, turned to face the moon. The needle split into four segments, opening wide like a great flower, but without lots and lots of petals. The splitting needle revealed a great hollow space, and a device in the very center that looked sharp and very dangerous. Bolts of blue lightning shot from the points of the four segments, meeting on the tip of the device in the center. The device glowed and fired a massive beam at the moon, visible to all looking up at the night sky. The beam struck the moon, cracking its surface. There was a massive explosion, as half the moon disintegrated. The screen changed back to Snively and the blue background. "Pretty impressive, huh? And I will do the same thing to one of the seven continents, probably America, if you do not surrender total global control to me by midnight tomorrow!" Snively vanished and was replaced by a timer as incessant maniacal laughter started playing over and over. The timer began at 28 hours and started counting down.  
  
Day X, 9:05 AM  
  
In the inner sanctum of the pyramid base, Snively just finished his latest failed communication with President Chao-lin. As usual, she would not surrender. As Scales stood by, Snively did not react very well to the President's refusal. Namely, he threw a tantrum, shrieking and pounding the floor, bawling like a baby. Scales groaned. Rouge entered the room, refreshed from a good night's sleep, the communicator to her supervisor open so her boss could hear the conversation she was about to initiate. "Well, that was impressive!" she said sarcastically. "You've caused havoc across the whole planet! Do we now control the planet, and are able to do with it whatever we please?" She blinked as she came down the walkway, suddenly noticing Snively's little tantrum. "Uh, what's with him?" she asked. "Our threats fell on deaf ears. He's contacted every world leader thirteen times now and they still refuse to give in. He's not dealing with it very well." Scales answered. Snively sniffed and got up, looking suddenly furious. "This moment never happened, understood? Good!" Rouge sighed and shook her head. "Look at you, throwing a tantrum like a little kid! What kind of evil future world ruler does that?" she asked. Snively growled. "The Cannon is taking too damn long to recharge! I need to blow up America as soon as possible! I see you still haven't fully held up your end of the deal, Miss Treasure Hunter. Where is the last Super Emerald?!" Rouge grinned and handed Snively a newspaper from last month. "I believe this will answer that question." Frowning, Snively read the headline out loud. "For his latest discovery, the invention of Super Coffee, Dr. Robotnik has been awarded the fiftieth Nobel Prize in his family's history, not to mention the third in his lifetime. As a special prize, the Nobel Committee has given this world- famous scientist a Super Emerald!" Snively crumpled up the paper, angry that his old mentor still was getting awards while he had none. "Find the old man! I don't care what it takes, but find him, and get me the Super Emerald!" He stormed out of the room, presumably to sulk. Scales hesitated, then trailed after him. When Rouge thought they were both out of hearing range, she whispered, "Did you get that?" to the person on the other end of her communicator. Little did she know Scales had heard her, and was growing more suspicious of the bat.  
  
Day X, 7:15 PM  
  
It had taken some doing, but they had finally managed to track down Robotnik. He was on a flight across the Atlantic, so they couldn't just hijack the plane, too dangerous. Instead they waited until he reached his destination, which just happened to be Egypt! Definitely not a coincidence. Snively was convinced they knew where his base was when Rouge reported that Amy, Shadow, Knuckles, and some Chao were with Robotnik as well. He had ordered Rouge to pursue them, but things got difficult when the heroes had taken to the air in Amy's plane. Rouge had tried to chase after them in the Rougemobile, but Route 280 soon turned away from them. So when the Storming Heart III flew through an area known as Pumpkin Hill, which was dangerously close to the base, Scales had been sent out to see if she could intercept the plane or at least see where it was heading. And so the lizard began on top of a pillar of stone at the highest point of the eerie canyon. Her misgivings about Rouge put aside for the moment, Scales had a mission to complete.  
  
Stage 10: Sky Rail. Mission: Chase the Storming Heart.  
  
Scales leaped off the top of the pillar, landing on one of a set of parallel rails, grinding down its length. It was very long and twisting, and it seemed like the rails were used by some sort of weird train to fly around. But that was silly, wasn't it? She grinded down the rail, moving from side to side to avoid some of the Beetles that flew close to the rail. After several seconds of grinding, the rails came to a stop on a wide ledge cut into a towering hill Scales hopped off of the rail and ran along the broad ledge, quickly converting to battle mode and killing a Hawk that swooped down at her. She had to stop, reaching a gap. There was another wide ledge, but it was across the gap and too high for her. There were a series of Beetles hovering over the gap, but the end of their trail was atop a curved steel beam she had walked over on her way to the gap. Scales walked back to the beam and looked for a way up there. She suddenly saw a spring on the wall facing the top of the beam. It was a little high up, so it wasn't surprising she hadn't seen it before. She shot at the spring with a Homing Kick, bouncing off it and landing on the top of the beam. She used a series of Homing Kicks to get across the chain of Beetles, eventually reaching the higher ledge. She was pleased, until she saw it ended only a few feet in front of her and there was another, even higher ledge across the gap. And there were no enemies. Since it would be a little dangerous to warp up there, not knowing what was waiting for her, Scales pondered what she should do. Then she saw what looked like a spring on a propeller, floating up and down in the gap. Getting an idea, she launched at the spring with a Homing Kick and started bouncing upwards, getting higher with each jump because the spring kept moving up. When the spring was at the top of its climb, Scales performed a Homing Kick at the peak of her bounce, getting on the ledge. This one was a bit bigger, and ended in a barricade up ahead. There was a Hunter guarding a rocket aimed for a nearby hill. Scales killed the laser-toting robot and grabbed the rocket, launching across the gap. She dropped from the rocket and landed on top of a hill that looked like a jack-o-lantern on a stick. There were a lot of those things around. How creepy. She saw a Beetle floating to her left. She performed a Homing Kick on it, and used another one to get to the platform across from the Beetle. She saw another Beetle hovering at the edge of the platform. She hit it with a Homing Kick, then used another one on the Beetle behind it, and another to reach a propeller spring. She bounced as the spring floated up, jumping at the peak of the flight path to the top of a hill. There were some steel beams sticking out of the top, and a pair of parallel rails running away from the edge. Scales jumped on a rail and started grinding down it, following the long track. She crouched down to pick up speed and avoid low-flying enemies, speeding down the rail and along its numerous turns and drops before finally reaching another ledge. She ran along it, killing the Hawk that shot at her, and jumped on a set of short rails at the edge, grinding down and across to a lower ledge. She saw a spring attached to the wall pointing up and behind her on the wall past the end of the ledge. She used a Homing Kick to get to the spring and bounced off it, ricocheting from another spring and landing on a ledge that wound a ways ahead. She ran down the ledge, killing the Rhinos that tried to knock her off, and reached the edge, seeing another ledge across a short gap. She Homing Kicked across the gap and jumped on the propeller spring hovering on the platform. She bounced off the spring as it flew upward, jumping to a high ledge as the spring reached the peak of its climb. She ran along the ledge, killing a Hornet, and found another propeller spring. She bounced on it as it flew higher and higher, jumping off when she reached another ledge. She walked to its end and saw a floating chain of Beetles. She Homing Kicked down the line of Beetles, landing on a platform with a propeller spring. She bounced up the propeller spring as it flew, jumping to another spring when the current one reached the top of its climb. As this spring ascended, she continued bouncing until she saw another spring waiting for her. She started bouncing on that one as well until it got to the top of the hill, where she jumped off. At the end of the hill was another set of rails. She killed the Hunter in front of the rails and started grinding down the track, once again crouching to pick up speed and avoid enemies. She was surprised when she saw big spiked balls lining her rail up ahead. She quickly jumped to the other rail, avoiding the spiked balls. After a little time, she reached the end of the rail, a big platform/ledge with scary-looking trees. She ran past the trees and was almost shot by a Hunter. She killed the robot and jumped to a ledge at the end of the current one. She jumped from there to another ledge and so on and so forth until she found a propeller spring. She bounced off the spring as it flew up, Homing Kicking into an alcove dug into the cliff wall. She looked out of the alcove and saw another propeller spring below her and a little to her left. She jumped out of the alcove, controlling her descent and landing on the spring. She bounced on it as it flew upwards, jumping off and on to a small ledge with a short set of rails that didn't go off the edge. She looked off the other end of the ledge and saw another one below. She dropped to the ledge and used the propeller spring on it, bouncing on it as it flew up and jumping off to a ledge behind her at the peak of the spring's ascent. She ran along the ledge and came to yet another propeller spring. She got on and started bouncing as the spring flew up, eventually reaching the top of the hill. She jumped off of the spring, landing on the hilltop. She looked around and saw several graves and a church. Weird. At the other end of the hill was a set of rails going down from the top, guarded by a pair of Hunters. She wiped out the Hunters with a Tail whip and started grinding down the next long rail. She crouched to pick up speed, moving her body around to avoid the shots fired by the numerous Hawks and Beetles around the canyon. She saw a whole row of spiked balls ahead, so quickly jumped to the other rail before she could get impaled. She continued down her current rail for a little while, until she saw another row of spiked balls ahead. She switched rails again and grinded down it to the end of the track, landing on a ledge with a big fan built into the wall, a steel beam, and a propeller spring. She jumped on the spring and bounced on it as it flew up, jumping off at a ledge with a fire- breathing metal skull. She waited for the skull to stop breathing fire, then ran past it and jumped to the large plateau behind it, which was filled with graves, scarecrows, Beetles, and evil trees. She killed the Beetles as she ran through the area, running up some steel beams to get to a higher part of the area. She had to go up several beams and kill a few Hunters before reaching the top, in front of another set of parallel rails. She jumped on the rails and started grinding, moaning when she saw that up ahead, both rails were filled with spiked balls! As she was heading for the big balls, Scales saw a section of clear track past the spiked balls. She quickly jumped up as she was about to hit the first spiked ball and yelled, "Chaos Control!" She warped to the end of the line of maces, on a clear rail, and sighed in relief as she continued her grind. The track wound around and around, veering past several cliffs, Hawks, and jack-o-lantern pillars. But soon, she saw another long double line of spiked balls. She saw another stretch of clean rail beyond them, and used the Chaos Control to warp over there. She continued down the rail uneventfully, only needing to switch rails now and then to avoid single spiked balls. Finally, she reached the end of the rail, a hilltop with several jutting steel beams, one of which had the Goal Ring at its end. She ran across the hill and onto the beam, jumping through the Goal Ring and ending the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Rouge looked around and could see no other place to go to. She was at the end of the region. She heard a whine from an engine and looked up and to her right, seeing a pink and red plane flying past. There were several people in the plane, a pink hedgehog piloting the plane, Shadow sitting behind her, an uncomfortable fat man and pair of Chao wedged in to the back seat, a Chao sitting on the tail fin, and an echidna hanging on to the wing for dear life. Scales looked along their intended direction as they flew by and saw they were heading for the canyon exit. She could see the pyramid base only a mile away from the end. She quickly contacted Snively. "Doctor, I can't keep up pursuit, but they're heading right for the base." "Yes, I thought they would." Said Snively. "Don't worry, I've got something planned for them. Return home and take a rest, I'll handle things from here on." "Yes Master." Scales cut off the line and warped away, leaving the canyon empty of living beings once again.  
  
Day X, 8:50 PM  
  
The heroes walked down the corridor within, coming to a hieroglyph door. It rose upwards as they approached, letting them through. They were in a huge round chamber. There were four doors at an equal level around the room, one for each point of the compass. The heroes had just come out of the south door. The north one was open, and the other two were closed. Connecting the four doors was a ring shaped stone platform with a bridge leading off to each door. Far below was the floor, a pit of quicksand with several stone blocks lying around and a few pulleys leading back up to the stone ring. The group stepped forward on the bridge. "Which way do we go?" asked Shadow. "Nowhere!" said Snively. As his theme song started to play on hidden speakers, the west door rumbled open, revealing Snively in the Snivel Walker. "This is your end, heroes! I'm not letting you get to my shuttlepad!" "What shuttlepad?" asked Amy innocently. "The shuttlepad through the north door, you pink bimbo!" he paused. "D'oh! Shouldn't have told you that. Guess I should have gotten around to fixing the locking mechanism on that door too. Oh well, anyway, you're not getting to the shuttlepad because of my powerful guardian, and you're not getting to the teleporter in the control room behind me because I'm blocking the way!" said Snively, fiercely. "Incidentally, what's to the east?" asked Knuckles. "To the east is an elevator leading to a different area of the pyramid much like the Death Chamber that leads directly outside, with a slightly less guarded series of ruins." Snively replied. They all looked at each other. "Why didn't we notice the east ruins?" Shadow asked. They all shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, bring on your guardian Snively, I doubt he's any more difficult than any of your other creations." Snively scowled. "Just for that, I'll program him to kill you first! Now, let's do this!" Snively pressed a few buttons on his control panel then started shouting. "Arise my servant, destroy the black hedgehog and kill the others after you're done with him!" The quicksand pit bubbled. From the center, something huge erupted, towering through the center of the ring and looming over them all. It was a giant robot, covered in a stone shell to make it look like an extremely muscular Egyptian statue. Only two things gave away that the monster was indeed not just a living statue. First of all, it had a metal pod with black and yellow hazard stripes on the top of its head. Second, Snively had given it his own face, creating the image of an extremely big and strong version of Snively that everyone found hard to stomach. "By Chaos, that thing's even uglier than King Boom Boo!" said Knuckles, disgusted. "I can't stand to look at the thing's face without wanting to throw up!" complained Amy. The Chao moaned and started to cry, scared by the big ugly thing. "Oh come on, I'm not that ugly!" said Snively. "YES YOU ARE!" they all replied. Snively gnashed his teeth, furious that they had insulted his good looks. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) "Kill Shadow!" he screamed at the giant. The giant machine opened his arms, anticipating combat. Shadow looked to the others. "Amy, get everyone to the shuttlepad. I'll teach Snively to make better guardians. Try not to leave without me, okay?" Amy grinned. "We'll be sure to keep a seat for you." Knuckles and Robotnik squeezed into the Passion. Amy jumped off the bridge, hovering to a platform below and jumping across them to reach a pulley near the north end of the room. Due to Snively's instructions, the giant didn't even notice them. Shadow walked onto the stone ring. "All right big guy, let's dance." He said.  
  
The Golem swung a fist downwards, trying to squish the black hedgehog to a bloody pulp. Shadow ran out of the way and began speeding down the ring, trying to get behind the Golem. The giant turned to face him and smashed his left arm down, trying to cut Shadow off. Shadow stopped immediately with the use of his air brakes. As the Golem raised its fist again, Shadow ran underneath it, still going. The Golem tried to smash him again and failed, being far too slow. Shadow got behind the Golem's back. He was surprised when it stopped moving and several platforms shot out of its back, then started to slowly recede. Shadow quickly jumped onto the biggest one, which was in line with the ring. He jumped and did a Homing Attack to reach the next one up, and did the same for the next one. Now he was just underneath the giant's neck. Three immobile platforms stuck out of the Golem's head. Each had a glowing hieroglyph on it. Shadow performed four Homing Attacks in a row, striking the hieroglyphs on the platforms and smashing right into the pod on the Golem's head, destroying it. He tumbled through the air, his momentum carrying him towards the quicksand. He activated his jets, landing on a platform. He Homing Attacked onto a pulley and lifted himself back onto the ring and headed for the exit. The Golem flailed its arms wildly, its stone head spinning. Snively sputtered furiously. "Wha-but-hey! Come back here!"  
  
Shadow sighed and turned to face Snively. "What is it?" "Why aren't you dead? How did you know the Golem's only weak spot was the restraining mechanism on its handsome head?" Snively asked, really angry. Shadow rolled his eyes. "Because it was the only thing not covered in stone, it was on top of its head; practically screaming it was a weak point, and it had yellow and black hazard stripes. You really make your weaknesses too obvious Snively." He smirked. "Hell, the GUN's F-6T Bigfoot put up more of a challenge than your Golem!" Before an enraged Snively could lock onto him with his laser blaster, Shadow ran through the north door. Snively cursed and glared up at the Snivel Golem, who was flailing around drunkenly, head still spinning. "Agh, stupid robot! I hate that hedgehog!" Hearing Snively's insult, the Golem stopped spinning and looked down on Snively. He reached out his right hand, trying to squish the doctor. "Shit!" Snively yelled as he hovered from the walkway and on to the stone ring before he could be squashed.  
  
SNIVEL GOLEM  
  
The Golem turned to face Snively. The madman quickly tried to think of a way to take down his creation. Then he remembered the three weak spots of the Golem's stone shell he had placed in case the thing went berserk. As the Snivel Golem swung its right hand towards him, Snively jumped and hovered, avoiding the hand and shooting several blasts from his cannon at a barely perceptible crack on the Golem's right breast. The shots blew the crack open, revealing three blinking lights on the curved metal housing of the robot's power core. As Snively was about to lock on to the lights, the Golem swatted him from the air, sending him crashing into a wall and down towards the quicksand below. Frantically regaining control of the walker, Snively activated the jet engine and hovered to one of the platforms below. He hovered to a pulley and was elevated back to the ring. As the Snivel Golem started to raise its arm, Snively locked on to all three lights on the power core and fired his laser blaster, causing three massive explosions that rocked the Golem. While it was stunned, Snively hovered back on the ring and started walking to the right, trying to get in range of the next crack. The Snivel Golem's head spun and the stone giant rose once again. He placed both hands away from each other, then brought them together in a great clap that would have squished Snively if he hadn't jumped and started hovering at exactly the right moment. He blasted the second crack, which was on the Golem's left breast, revealing another section of the power core's hull. Snively locked on to the three blinking lights and fired as the Golem was about to swat him from the air, triggering another three massive explosions. Snively dropped to the ground and walked a little further down the path, and was frightened when the Snivel Golem recovered and thrusted forward, bringing its entire upper body towards the doctor in an attempt to crush him! Snively jumped off the edge of the ring just before he could get killed, and hovered to a platform below and was raised back to the ring on another pulley. As the Golem started swatting at him, Snively quickly jumped from the pulley and started hovering, pelting the final crack, which was near the Snivel Golem's left shoulder, with shots from his cannon. The crack blew open, revealing three more lights on the surface of the power core. The Golem reeled back and thrusted forward again. Snively jumped off the edge of the ring and grabbed on the pulley he had used before as he hovered down, rising back to the top. As the Golem tried to swat him once more, Snively jumped to the right and hovered to the ring, moving as fast as he could. The Golem turned to face him and started thrusting forward. Snively jumped and hovered out of the Golem's path, barely avoiding a lethal blow. As the Snivel Golem started to pull itself up from the ring, Snively locked on to the three lights. "Say goodnight, Golem!" Snively yelled, firing some laser blasts. There were three more huge explosions. The Golem flailed and shook from side to side, finally toppling into the quicksand pit, its shell breaking and revealing the metal interior of the robot. Snively then held a moment of silence for the destruction of another fine effigy of himself.  
  
The top of the pyramid unfolded, revealing a deep shaft. At the bottom of the shaft was a stolen American space shuttle, complete with giant fuel tank and booster rockets. A feminine computer voice switched on. "Liftoff sequence initiated. Shuttle liftoff in 5.4.3.2.1.0. Liftoff is engaged. Have a nice day." The shuttle engines and booster rockets ignited, launching the shuttle up the shaft and out of the pyramid, streaming up into the night sky. The heroes and Chao were heading into space, for the final confrontation on the ARK.  
  
Another chapter complete! Sorry about the level's shortness, it just came out that way when I started writing. A lot of cutscenes, but not too bad otherwise, is it? Please review! 


	11. Mad Space

Where are my reviews? I NEED REVIEWS! Please review or my little sister will go insane! Disclaimer: Why do I need to say this again?  
  
Day X, 10:59 PM  
  
Rouge walked into the control center of the ARK, heading for the supercomputer in the middle. Earlier, he had told her to get to the ARK and head for the docking bay as quickly as possible. Once she had gotten up to the colony, she had deliberately taken the longest path possible to get to the control room instead, taking a few hours to see the sights of the giant former research center. But finally, she had made it. She contacted Snively. "Doctor, I've made it to the docking bay." She lied. "What took you so long?!" he yelled. "I got lost." She said simply. He cursed a few times. She ignored the profanity. "Whatever! Rouge, our enemies are almost at the colony! I need you to try and stop them before they can get the Super Emeralds!" "Of course Doctor. What's the password for the colony control?" she asked. "Eh? Why do you need to know that?" asked Snively, confused. "Well, if I try to stop the heroes myself, there's a good chance of my failure if they all team up. But if I can get access to the supercomputer, I can activate the defense systems and put up a better attempt at killing them." she explained. "Hmm, good idea. Glad I thought of it." Said Snively. "The password is GERALD, after Dr. Maria's only son, Gerald Robotnik." "Thanks, I'll get right on stopping the intruders." Said Rouge, cutting off the line between them. She smirked. "Ha! Fooling that crazy midget is just too easy! Now to see what I can find." Rouge went to the big control panel and typed in GERALD, opening the entire colony to her, aside from the damaged systems like security cameras. But all the onboard sensors worked, and those were almost as good. She switched on the security for the important areas of the colony, deploying the reprogrammed GUN robots and Artficial Chaos drones. Once that was done, she began her real work. She activated her hidden comm unit and started speaking as she began sifting through the colony's database. "This is Rouge, reporting. I've gained access to the colony's supercomputer. No, I can't take the Emeralds out yet, that would spoil everything. Besides, Snively will know if I take the Emeralds too early and just kill me and take them back. I will see if I can figure out the truth about Scales, though. Hold on please." Rouge kept going through the large database, finally finding a huge file labelled "PROJECT ULTIMATE." Thinking this was it, Rouge opened the file and started scanning the contents. She was greatly surprised by what she found. She spoke to her superior again. "Th-this is Rouge again, I think I've found what we're looking for. And much more. I'll send the data to you now." She took a small cable from her dimension pocket and connected it to her communicator and the computer. With a few keystrokes, Rouge was able to transmit the large amount of bits on Project Ultimate to the person on the other end of the line. As the upload finally ended, Rouge listened to startled reactions on the other end, and noticed a new window had appeared on the screen. She clicked on it, and saw a map of the colony and the outside area. There were a few scattered areas radiating Chaos energy on the exterior of the colony. They could be nothing else but the other pieces of the Master Emerald. She spoke into the communicator again. "Look, Something just came up. I'll call you back, okay?" Rouge hung up before she could get a response and smirked. "Well, it looks like the other pieces of the Master Emerald have somehow gotten into orbit. I wonder if that echidna will be there too. It will be interesting to see him again. Well, I'd better get out there and get the shards before he does!" She left the control room and quickly got outside the colony. (Don't ask me how she did it so quickly.)  
  
Stage 11: Mad Space. Mission: Find 3 pieces of the Master Emerald.  
  
Rouge was near the bottom of a large area outside the colony, sort of in the asteroid field. She was standing on a metal platform that split into three walkways, each leading to a platform with a rocket on top. There were a LOT of floating platforms all over the area. There were also a few dozen small meteors, three small planetoids, and a huge tower jutting from the surface of the space colony. There were dozens of ledges, floating platforms, walkways and cargo containers surrounding the big tower. Rouge hoped the pieces of the Emerald wouldn't be too hard to find in this enormous place. Rouge thought she should start with the planetoids, but which one to go to first? One was greenish and looked like half a sphere, with crystals and space pods growing from the flat upper half, one was spherical and gray with a huge blue space pod at the top, and the last one looked like a giant capsule made of rock, covered in grass and metallic structures. The three rockets around her looked like they would take her to the planetoids. On a whim, she decided to use the one pointing to the green half-sphere. She ran down the path, climbed up the platform, and grabbed the rocket. She was launched into the air, hurtling upward and dropping from the rocket as she got over the half-sphere. She glided down and started looking around the surface. Aside from a few Hunters, crystals and space pods, there didn't seem to be anything there. Despite there not being anything visible, Rouge's treasure senses were detecting something faintly. Getting an idea, she ran to the edge of the planetoid and jumped off. She turned around and glided into the dome-shaped underside of the planetoid, climbing down it's curved surface. She climbed down (Or is it up?) the surface of the planetoid, getting to the lowest point. Her treasure senses went off. Rouge looked up (or is it down?) and saw the Emerald shard floating beneath the planetoid. Rogue let go of the planetoid's surface and started to fall towards the Emerald. She started to glide and grabbed the piece in midair. She continued her glide across the vast expanse in the middle of the area, eventually reaching the spherical planet. She was suddenly flipped over and tugged, feet-first, to the planetoid. She landed, a bit confused and disoriented, but shook it off and started looking for any pieces. She followed her treasure senses to the bottom of the planet, where there was a large platform with a shard on it! She climbed up the side of the platform and grabbed the Emerald piece. Then she tried to jump from the surface of the planet and glide. She couldn't. She only ended up gliding around the surface of the planetoid. It's gravity was too strong for her to escape from. Thinking there might be something helpful in the big blue capsule, Rouge glided over to the pod at the top of the planetoid and climbed up it. She found a rocket pointing right at the capsule-shaped planetoid. She grabbed the rocket and was launched forward, letting go and gliding the rest of the way to the capsule. She landed, pulled in by its gravity, and started wandering around, looking for an Emerald shard. Her treasure senses went off as she approached one of the ends of the capsule. Struggling to climb over the numerous metal structures, Rouge made it to one of the metal "caps" at either end of the planetoid. She was quite pleased to find both a spring to escape the planetoid's gravity and the last Emerald shard. She picked it up, ending the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Rouge's treasure senses picked up faint readings from deeper in the asteroid field. She bounced off the spring, escaping the capsule's gravity, and started gliding away, heading out of the area and through the large asteroid field. After a few minutes, she reached another section of the exterior areas, a big platform carved on top of a giant meteor. There were several structures around a large unfinished building, a tower of girders. Rouge glided to the building, stopping on a girder to recalibrate her senses. She was surprised to find the treasure getting closer and closer! She heard gliding and a thump at the other end of the girder as her senses told her the other Emerald pieces were there. She turned around and saw the red echidna from before. A smile came onto her face. "Well, it's been a while since we've last seen each other, isn't it." she paused. "What was your name again?" "Knuckles. I haven't forgotten your name, Rouge." Said the echidna. Rouge frowned. "Hey, you never told me your name! How can I be expected to remember something I didn't know?" Knuckles thought a moment. "Good point. I see you haven't forgotten about the Master Emerald." He said, pointing to her, sensing the energy from the missing Master Emerald shards. "Neither have you. So, are you going to hand the missing pieces over?" Rouge asked. Knuckles snorted. "No way! You hand the missing pieces over!"  
  
"No, you!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "Stop!" yelled Rouge. "This isn't getting us anywhere. How about this, we fight each other for the Master Emerald. Whoever beats the other gets the six shards he or she is holding. Sound fair?" Knuckles nodded. "As long as you don't cheat." Rouge grinned, her two vampiric fangs showing. "I may be a thief, but I do have honor! I don't plan on cheating." "Then let's do this." Said Knuckles, tilting his head to the side, indicating they jump down to the floor of the building. "Let's." agreed Rouge. They jumped off the girder and landed in the center of the tower of girders, facing each other in a battle stance.  
  
KNUCKLES  
  
Knuckles and Rouge ran at each other. Knuckles tried to nail her with a punch, but she ducked and hit him in the chest with a kick that sent him reeling. As she ran towards him, Knuckles held his fists out, planning to ram them into her head as she tried to kick him. She jumped over him and came downward in a drill drive, hurting him more than the kick! As Knuckles tried to get up, Rouge kicked him, sending him rolling across the floor. She came towards him again. Knuckles grunted and got up. As Rouge tried to give him another kick, he ducked around the swing and grabbed her leg. As she started to unbalance, startled, Knuckles threw her over his shoulder, sending her into a girder. She winced and got up. He ran towards her, fists ready. Rouge turned around and started climbing up the side of the girder. Knuckles grabbed on to the girder and started climbing after her. When she noticed he was only a few feet underneath her, she smiled and let go. She immediately went into a drill drive, knocking Knuckles off of the girder and sending him smashing to the ground. As he moaned and started to get up, Rouge shot down from above in another drill drive, her own spiked knuckles driving into the echidna's stomach. He groaned and punched upwards, hitting her in the face. She gasped and flipped off of him. Knuckles quickly got up and hit her from behind, sending her several feet back. He came racing towards her. Rouge glared and got ready. When he swung his fists, Rouge swung a leg. The punch and kick connected with each other, deflecting with enough force to send both fighters several yards away from each other. As they started charging for each other again, the ground suddenly opened up, revealing a shaft going straight into the molten core of the giant meteor. As the echidna and bat started to fall, the antigravity generators running up half the tower's height switched on, sending both of them reeling into the air. As Rouge floundered, trying to "swim" to a girder, Knuckles flipped over to a girder, as he was closer to the edge when the floor had opened up. He climbed a little way up the girder and launched off, gliding above Rouge, who was almost to one of the horizontal girders. He spun into a drill drive, hitting her while she was vulnerable. She cried out and kicked him off of her, sending him into the antigravity field. She pulled herself onto the girder, ran along its length, and climbed up a vertical girder. As Knuckles started to get close to one of the horizontal girders, she jumped off the girder and started to glide over to him. As she positioned herself right above him, Knuckles realized what she was doing and tried to get to the girder as fast as possible. Just as she started her drill drive, the floor closed up again and the antigravity cut off. Knuckles had not yet reached the girder and started to fall. This was made worse when Rouge slammed into him from above with the Drill Drive, sending him to the ground faster than before and inflicting constant damage while doing so. He hit the ground hard, hurting more than before due to the impact from Rouge's claws and the hard metal floor. But if Knuckles was one thing, it's resilient, and he punched Rouge off of him and got up. She raced towards him, starting to make a kick. Knuckles ducked beneath the swing and shot up around the leg, hitting her with a spiral uppercut. She fell away, hurt. She felt her jaw; assuring herself it wasn't broken. Knuckles took advantage of her momentary pause and punched her in the gut. He followed this up with an uppercut and a three-hit combo. She staggered back, obviously hurting. Knuckles ran towards her again. Rouge suddenly dropped to the ground and sweeped out with her legs, knocking Knuckles off his feet. She got up and kicked him in the sides, sending him rolling over the floor. He got up before she could come over. She smirked at him as he winced, clutching his ribs. "That'll teach you not to hurt a lady!" she said proudly. "What kind of lady goes around stealing jewels, anyway?" Knuckle asked angrily. "I'll have you know that it has been a tradition in my family for generations! The eldest daughter always becomes a jewel thief, inheriting the treasure senses of her mother and skill at heists!" Rouge responded indignantly. Knuckles blinked. "Really? The same thing sort of works in my family. The first boy of his generation inherits his dad's treasure sense and job as Guardian of the Master Emerald." Rouge couldn't help smiling again. "So you could say we have a lot in common, don't we?" "You just keep thinking that, bat girl!" Knuckles said, running towards her. As she charged at him, the floor opened once more. "Oh, crap!" "Not agaaaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnnn!" yelled Rouge as the antigravity sent them shooting upwards. They both swam through the air, pulling themselves up on the same girder. "I've had enough of this! Power Flash!" shouted Knuckles. There was a flash of bright light, and Rouge screamed, clutching her eyes in pain, temporarily blinded. Knuckles took advantage of this and ran forward, unleashing multiple punches on the bat while she couldn't see. As he was about to land a crippling blow to her chin, Rouge's sight recovered and she delivered a tremendous kick to the spot between his legs. Knuckles' mouth fell open, his eyes bulging. He fell to the ground, wheezing. Rouge delivered about a dozen crushing kicks to the fallen echidna, knocking him off of the girder just as the floor started to close. She jumped off the girder after him as the antigravity turned off, smashing into him with a Drill Drive and sending both of them crashing to the ground. Knuckles knocked her off. Before Rouge could put up a defense, Knuckles let loose a flurry of punches, each hitting and causing a lot of pain for her. She flipped away, holding her stomach. Rouge was getting really angry at this point. "You think you're so tough? Then take this! Nightmare Shock!" Knuckles was suddenly paralyzed in fear as every nightmare, fear or misgiving he ever had raced from his subconscious, forcing him to relive every moment of terror or discomfort he had ever experienced. He screamed and clutched his head. Rouge ran up to him and hit him with kick after kick, not stopping even when he had recovered from her attack. Knuckles grabbed her foot and threw her over his shoulder as he had before. Rouge got into a stance. Knuckles spun around and did the same. They both let out a punch and kick at the same time, connecting with each other's jaw. The force from the blow to either of them caused them to stagger back, panting. Rouge could vaguely feel that her entire body was hurting. She tuned out the pain, focusing on her desire. She couldn't believe that Knuckles had withstood all of her attacks. Every enemy that she had ever fought before had never come this close to beating her. He had the same strength as she did. He was truly a worthy match. And Rouge couldn't help noticing for the first time how handsome he was, even tired and bloody as he was now. She snapped out of this moment of observation. What was she thinking? She had to get the pieces of the Master Emerald from him! She turned around and ran for the nearest girder. Knuckles did the same thing. Both grabbed onto the girders and started climbing, higher and higher, until they were at the top level of the building. As they reached the top, the floor opened again. They were too high to be affected, but it added an interesting effect to the scene. The two treasure hunters slowly ran around the top girders, meeting each other on the single girder over the middle of the building. They stopped, facing each other. Both were exhausted, feeling like they couldn't take another step without collapsing. Knuckles spoke up. "I have a proposition." he managed to say. "What?" asked Rouge. "We're both severely weakened. One more attack should finish at least one of us off. So I propose we end this battle with one final attack, each of us using our strongest technique. Whoever is left standing wins custody of the Emerald. Sound good?" he asked. She nodded breathlessly. "Yeah, sounds good." "Then let's do this." He raised his arms, gathering what little strength he had left. A ball of yellow electricity gathered above him, crackling and growing in size. Rouge put one foot behind her and twisted her waist, holding her hands cupped and at her hip level. A mass of darkness began to collect in her palms. Knuckles finished charging the attack, the ball of electricity the size of his head. "Thunder Arrow!" The ball shot a bolt of yellow energy with an arrowhead at Rouge. Rouge finished charging the attack, the dark mass filling her cupped hands completely. She swung her waist to face the front, flinging her cupped hands outward. "Black Wave!" The mass shot at Knuckles in the form of a ring of darkness. The two attacks hit their intended victims at the same time. The two hunters screamed in pain and fell over, unconscious.  
  
Rouge groaned and got up, ever part of her body hurting. She winced, trying not to scream, and saw Knuckles was still unconscious. Staggering to her feet, she went over and filched the bag containing the six pother shards of the Master Emerald from his dimensional pocket, emptying them into her own bag. She threw the bag over the edge of the girder and started to walk away. As she was about to jump off the building and glide away, she stopped. Something in her didn't want to leave Knuckles like this. Why did she feel this way? He had put up an exceptionally good match, that's true, but why did she feel like she didn't want to leave him? Could she actually be falling for this strange echidna? Sighing, she turned around and walked back to the girder bridge, waiting for Knuckles to get up. A few minutes later, he did. He blinked a few times, then seemed to sag. He hadn't seen her yet. "Why so glum?" she asked. Knuckles looked up in surprise. "It was a good fight, you almost won. Why are you so sad about losing?" Knuckles shook his head "It-it's nothing. Go. You have all twelve pieces. Take them and leave. You've proven yourself to be a far worthier guardian of the Master Emerald then I ever could be. Just." He looked up. "Just take better care of it than I did, okay?" Rouge looked at him confused. "I don't understand. What are you going on about? It's just another jewel, albeit the biggest one on the planet. Why are you so depressed about not getting your rock back?" Knuckles stared at Rouge, looking surprised. "You mean you don't know?" "Know what?" "Why the Master Emerald is so important to me, to my race?" "No, I just know it's the largest gemstone in the world and has some weird powers." Knuckles shook his head, dismayed. "I don't believe it. You really don't know." "Know what?" asked Rouge, getting a little frustrated. Knuckles looked her straight in the eye. "The Master Emerald has been protected by the Echidna clan of the Crescent for thousands of years, ever since it was brought into being by the deity Chaos. After a rival clan of echidna tried to take the Master, Super and Chaos Emeralds from the clan by force, resulting in the deaths of many Chao and an enraged god of destruction, the princess of that clan, Tikal, had to seal herself and Chaos into the Master Emerald to protect everyone from the rampaging deity. Because of the deaths Chaos had caused due to the invasion by the rival clan, my ancestors used the power of the Master Emerald to raise their land into the clouds, dubbing it Angel Island. The Chaos Emeralds were scattered around the globe as they flew around the world, ensuring they would be protected from evil. To keep the Master Emerald from being taken by those wishing to covet its power, a Guardian was appointed to protect the Emerald for all his days. This tradition has carried on into modern times, leaving me in charge of guarding the Master Emerald after my father's death. Without the Emerald, the island can no longer fly and falls to the ground, usually in the ocean, and becomes a normal island. That would be fine, were it not for the tradition." He sighed. "But it seems that with my failure to take back the shards from you, I have broken that tradition. Angel Island will remain earthbound forevermore. Take the Emerald. Do with it what you will." Rouge looked at Knuckles for a moment, trying to sort some things through. Finally, she made a decision. She pulled the bag she had been using to contain the Emerald pieces and dumped its contents out at Knuckles' feet. He looked at the pieces then at Rouge, amazed. "Why-" "Because I don't want to ruin anyone's life or way of life. The Emerald belongs to your race, Knuckles. I have plenty of other jewels, anyway." She gestured at the pieces. "Go on. You said you could fix the thing. Do it." Still amazed that she had actually given up her prize, Knuckles gathered the pieces together and started assembling them, forming the massive jewel in seconds. It glowed brightly, complete at last. Knuckles put his hand on the Master Emerald and it shrunk to the size of a Super Emerald. He placed it in his dimension pocket. He looked at Rouge, extremely grateful. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." He paused, scratching the back of his head. "I'm, uh, sorry if I hurt you. Is there any way I can make up for the brutality I showed in the fight?" Rouge took a step forward, her emotions coming to the surface and taking control of her body. "There is one way." She said mysteriously. "Oh? Wha-" Rouge grabbed him and pulled him close, giving him a passionate kiss on the lips. Knuckles found himself unable to break away, nor really wanting to do so. So he enjoyed it, returning the kiss. Rouge fully enjoyed every second of this. After a full minute, Rouge broke away from him and pressed a piece of paper into his hand. She whispered, "See you later." Into his ear, kissed him on the cheek, and headed off, gliding away. Knuckles stood there for another minute, stunned by what had just happened. When he finally came to his senses, he looked at the piece of paper. It had her phone number written on it.  
  
And that is the end of another chapter. Only two more to go until the Last Story begins! I hope you liked this final battle from Rouge's perspective. See you all next time! And please review! 


	12. Cosmic Wall

Sorry this took so long to finish. But it's done now, so here we go! The second-to-last chapter, and the death of Snively! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and Rouge does have most of the jewels you listed, except the Dragonballs, which don't exist. And remember, do not feel sorry for Snively, even for a moment. He's had this coming for a long time. Disclaimer: I'm not going through this again.  
  
Day X, 11:15 PM  
  
In the pyramid, Snively and Scales examined the computer display. Well, Snively examined the display, Scales just stood there, bored. Snively frowned. He was looking at a sensor map of the ARK. The sensors showed two blinking lights at different parts of the colony. Snively tapped his chin. "Hmmm. This is odd." After a moment, he started grinning evilly. "Did they really think they could fool me with a fake Super Emerald?" he said. Scales started for the teleporter. Snively held up a hand. "No Scales, I should be the one who tells them this is the end." Scales shrugged and backed off. Snively got into his walker and drove it over to the teleporter pad. Before stepping on, he turned to Scales. "Now Scales, you're my last resort. If anything should happen to me, it's all up to you." "Of course, Master." Said Scales. Snively laughed inwardly. Poor, stupid lizard. She had no idea that when this was all over, she was going straight to the roboticizer, and the bat as well. Rouge insulted him, and would pay the price. Scales disobeyed an order, and would pay the price for that as well. He strode into the teleporter and was sent to the ARK. Scales waited a moment, then reactivated the teleporter and stepped in, also going up to the colony.  
  
Stage 12: Cosmic Wall. Mission: Get and confront the trespassers.  
  
Snively was on a platform in space. He had to cross a dangerous expanse to reach the docking bay, where his sensors had indicated most of the intruders were. He already had formulated a plan that would rid him of his long-time foes once and for all, but he had to get there first. He walked forward and on to a catwalk, turning left and reaching its end. There was another catwalk right above him. Some holographic arrows pointed up. Due to lower gravity in certain sections of the area, it was actually possible for him to hover upwards instead of doing a gradual descent. He hovered up to the next catwalk, blocking an Artificial Chaos as it shot at him with lasers. He kept going, turning right and walking a while before he came to another high catwalk. He hovered up to it, blasting the three Hornets waiting for him, and kept walking. He turned left and hovered to another catwalk, then walked straight forward, blasting a group of Hawks that swooped down at him. Noticing some floating blobs of Artificial Chaos all around, Snively locked onto and blasted the harmless machines. He hovered up to another catwalk, turned right, walked a little bit and hovered up to another one, turning left and going up again. He walked down the catwalk and turned right, seeing the higher catwalk had an Artificial Chaos clinging to the underside. He destroyed it and hovered up to the catwalk, blasting the Artificial Chaos floating around the area. He walked forward and left, passing a large falling weight. He killed some more Artificial Chaos and turned right, hovering up to another catwalk. He turned left and hovered up to another catwalk, walking down it and blasting lots of enemies, before reaching a catwalk that didn't have a higher one anywhere around. Snively looked to his right and saw a platform with a pyramid on it. He blasted the pyramid to pieces, revealing a spring. He hovered to the platform and bounced off the spring, landing on another platform. He saw arrows pointing up indicating he could hover, and used his jets to get to the next platform. He looked up and saw several more platforms. He sighed and slowly started hovering up the platforms one by one, eventually reaching a ledge with a pyramid on it. He blew up the pyramid, revealing a passage inside. He walked in and saw he was at the bottom of an enormous shaft filled with platforms at various heights. He growled and grabbed the pulley he saw in the middle of the room, after blasting the two Artificial Chaos guarding it. He was elevated to a platform with a spring. He bounced off the spring and landed on a platform with another spring. He bounced from there to another platform, this one with a pulley. He used the pulley to go up to another platform with a spring. He bounced on it and was propelled in between two platforms on opposite sides, each of which had a pyramid on it. He hovered and spun around, blasting either pyramid until they exploded, then landed on the one with a spring on it. She bounced from the spring and landed on a thin wall at the top of the shaft. He groaned when he saw that he now had to go down another shaft. Rather than bother with the platforms, Snively jumped straight off and started hovering down, blasting every Beetle and Hawk he saw, eventually landing on the floor. Guarding the exit door were two Artificial Chaos. Snively destroyed them and went through the door behind them. He was in a small room with a short hall that had weird lights around it. Snively went through the door. The section of ground he was standing on suddenly moved! He was clearly on some sort of monorail, as was evident by the fact that he was on a platform moving along a rail. The platform moved fairly fast, taking him through a field of asteroids. There were a lot of enemies in the area, Hawks, Beetles, Hornets, Artificial Chaos, and these laser-firing cylinders on platforms lining the track. Suddenly realizing this was like a shooting gallery, Snively started spinning wildly, locking on and firing at everything that moved, destroying dozens and dozens of machines. (I loved this part of Cosmic Wall. ^______^.) After having loads of fun, the monorail went towards the wall of the colony, stopping inside a small corridor and letting Snively off. He exited the room and was attacked by two Artificial Chaos. He quickly killed them and found he was at the bottom of another shaft. Grumbling, he slowly worked his way up, bouncing off springs on platforms, hovering, blasting pyramids, using pulleys and destroying enemies. He got to the top of the shaft, blasted a floating Artificial Chaos, and hovered down quickly through the next shaft, blasting every enemy in sight. He landed at the bottom of the shaft and went through the door there, exiting into space again. He walked down the catwalk he was on and dropped to another one, blasting an Artificial Chaos that appeared behind him. He walked down the catwalk, turning right and hovering to another one. He went straight ahead and hovered to a platform on his left, and hovered from there to a catwalk on his right. He followed the catwalk as it went right, then left, hovering to another platform and hovering from there to a catwalk on his left, destroying a Hornet that was taking aim. He proceeded in this fashion for a while until he reached a falling weight. He walked around the weight and kept going, turning left and hovering up. He went straight on the next catwalk, hovering to the next one on his left. He walked down it and hovered to another one on his right. He went down and hovered up to a platform and kept going up and around another long series of catwalks and platforms before coming to a spring aiming up on a platform. He bounced off the spring and up into a shaft. He landed on a platform with a Hawk next to him. He blew up the Hawk and hovered across the shaft to a platform with a pulley on it. He grabbed the pulley and was lifted up the shaft, allowing him to blast lots of Beetles. He let go of the pulley and hovered to a platform with a pyramid on it, blasting the structure to pieces just before he landed on it. He saw another platform with a pyramid and blasted it apart, then hovered over to it. The pyramid had covered a spring, which the evil doctor now used to bounce to a higher platform with an Artificial Chaos on it. He destroyed the machine and hovered to another platform across the shaft. He bounced from a spring on that platform and flew through the air, grabbing a pulley and getting lifted to a higher platform with a pyramid. Snively blasted the pyramid apart and landed on the platform. He hovered to another platform on his right and used the spring there to land on the wall separating his shaft from the next one. After killing a floating blob of Artificial Chaos, Snively started down the shaft, hovering and blasting every robot in sight. He landed at the bottom of the shaft and killed a pair of Artificial Chaos before going through the door and entering a small room with another small hall with weird lights like before. He stepped through the hallway and readied his trigger finger as he was rushed out into space on the monorail. He started blasting things, every thing that he saw move out of the corner of his eye, be it asteroid, robot, or cannon. The ride was much longer than the last one and had more targets, giving Snively more fun and shooting practice. After a few minutes of riding around and shooting, the monorail took Snively through a passage between two walls with several cannons attached tot hem. He kept shooting as the cannons fired their lasers, blowing up the offending machines, and finally pulled in to a big hexagonal tunnel. He heard a whirring noise behind him. He turned around, and saw that a huge drilling machine had been lowered into the tunnel and was now chasing him, intending to kill him! The machine was a big hexagonal wall with a rotating disc on the front. The disc had six small drills surrounding a huge central drill. Snively frantically fired at the drill, eventually blasting off a drill and knocking the thing back. It started inching closer. The scientist kept firing, occasionally knocking off drills and slowing the machine for a moment. Finally, he blew off the big drill and the whole thing exploded. The monorail exited the tunnel and came to an abrupt halt, flinging Snively off the end of the rail and sending him crashing down to a catwalk. He quickly engaged his hover jets and landed safely. He saw the Goal Ring and entrance back to the colony in an alcove up ahead. He walked through the Goal Ring, ending the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Snively went into the colony and quickly got to the docking bay. Robotnik saw him immediately and tried to get Eggchao, Devil and the egg into the shuttle but Snively fired a shot at their feet with his gun, stopping them. The mad doctor came over and leaned his walker down, only inches from Robotnik's face. He leveled his gun, pointing it in the fat man's face. "Tell me where Shadow is if you value your life, old man!" "He's-he's heading for the control room!" Robotnik stammered, frightened. Suddenly, the communicator Robotnik was holding came on. Shadow spoke. "Doctor, I've made it to the control room. What do I do now?" Snively snatched the communicator from Robotnik's grasp. "Come on doc, talk me through this." Snively raised the communicator to his mouth. "Hello? Doctor Robotnik? Can you hear me?" "Oh, I can hear you loud and clear, Shadow." Snively said into the communicator. Shadow gasped on the other end. "Snively! What have you done with Robotnik?" Snively giggled malevolently. "Nothing, yet. If you want to save the dear doctor, the egg, and the Chao from certain death, meet me at observation deck B. I'm sure you can get there with the map that the doctor must have provided you." Shadow said nothing for a moment, then, "Yes, I can get there." "Good! You have five minutes. Get here too late, and the doctor, the Chao, and the egg die. Tata!" Snively cut off the line. He leered at the frightened human and Chao. He pointed to the door with his gun. "Well, get a move on! We've got to meet your dear hedgehog before he gets there. Come on!" Snively herded them out of the room.  
  
Day X, 11:35 PM  
  
The door opened, Shadow entering the observation deck, the door closing behind him. He was in a large round room with half of the walls covered in big picture windows. The floor was split by a metal cross of sorts, with most of the floor being made of unbreakable glass, giving a person an unobstructed view of the Earth from space. Amy and Angel were in the walker right next to the door. Amy smiled a little as he walked next to them. Shadow smiled back. At the other end of the room, Snively sat in the Snivel Walker, his gun pointed towards Robotnik. A very worried Eggchao clutched his master's leg. Devil held on tightly to his egg, looking a little scared. Snively sneered and waved the gun a little, starting his little performance. "Ah, Shadow, you're right on time. A few seconds later and I would have put a bullet through the old man's head." "What do you want, Snively?" asked Shadow. "I know you have the Super Emerald. Come over here and give it to me, and I will let your friends go." Snively said, reaching his free hand out. Shadow kept his expression calm. He pulled out the Emerald and started walking across the room. "I'm coming Snively. Just don't hurt the doctor or the deal's off." "I won't hurt him, Shadow. However, I expect you not to play any tricks, or the doctor gets a new breathing hole." Snively said evilly. Robotnik gulped. Snively cackled inwardly. Shadow had no idea what would happen when he got to the center of the room. While he had been waiting for Shadow to show up, he had quickly initiated a program that none of the other people in the room knew about. One that would spell the end of Shadow. Shadow walked over the center of the room, where the intersection of the cross was. Suddenly, a glass tube with a weird gadget inside the top shot down from the ceiling, trapping him! He blinked, surprised. "What is this Snively, a roboticizer? You've already tried this on me! We both know that my genetic code is too complex to be converted into digital code." Snively laughed. "Roboticizer? Oh, this no roboticizer Shadow! This is your end!" He snickered, shaking his head. "Did you really think you could fool me with that fake Emerald?" Amy and Shadow both masterfully hid their astonishment. "What are you talking about? This here's the real Emerald!" Shadow said. "Yeah, there's no fake Emerald here." Said Amy. Snively grinned, eager to lecture them on how he had figured out their trick. "You underestimate me, again. While I was unable to get the security cameras back up, I was able to repair most of the sensors strewn throughout the colony. When you got here, my sensors picked up two readings of Chaos energy in the colony apart from the six in the control room. Since there are only seven Super Emeralds and both energy signatures matched that of a Super Emerald, I easily determined that one was a fake. And since one signature was heading to the control room while one was heading for a power generator, that showed the one heading for the control room was the fake, since there would be no reason for you to head for the control room carrying the real Emerald. Simple logic, my opponents, and overconfidence is what has cost you victory!" He laughed a bit, proud to show he wasn't as stupid as he sometimes appeared, then continued. "And now, to finally rid myself of that which has been a thorn in my side for all these years! That capsule you are trapped in is none other than an escape pod, Shadow! It's rigged to explode when it leaves the atmospheric hemisphere of the colony. Since you only carry a fake Super Emerald, and since I know from the past that you can't use Chaos Control with a Super Emerald, there is no way to escape! And even if you somehow manage to survive the explosion, the explosive decompression of outer space will finish the job! Ahahahahahaha! So," he said, leering down at the black hedgehog. "Do you have any last words to say?" Shadow paused. "Yes, yes I do." "Well go ahead, say your good-byes. You're not going to be seeing any of these people ever again, you know." Said Snively as he put away the gun and lounged back in his seat. He didn't really care what Shadow said, it didn't matter. They were all going to see each other on the other side, to tell the truth. Shadow took a deep breath and looked at Robotnik. "Doctor." He hesitated, a pained look on his face. "Doctor, I want to thank you for everything you've done for me over the years. You pulled me from that cryogenic capsule, healed me and tried to fix my forgotten memory. You were the one who inspired me the most to start fighting against evil, beginning when Snively first betrayed you. After that, I kept feeling like we were getting closer. You helped introduce me to Amy, and encouraged our first date which ended up in the relationship we have now." He paused, then continued, looking very sad. "I just want to say that I have always thought of you as my father." Robotnik sniffed, tears forming underneath his dark glasses. "Shadow.my son." he whispered to himself. Snively sneered, disgusted. Shadow turned to see Devil. "Devil, you've been my Chao for as long as I can remember. We've been friends for a long time, haven't we?" Devil nodded slowly. "When you evolved to the Chaos level, I was so proud that my Chao was one of the few to ever reach this level, one of the best. I was just as proud when you got your black belt in Chao karate, and won the grand prize at the Chao races." Shadow managed a smile. "But none of that amounts to how proud I am of you now, standing there with an egg, a father. I admit being a little envious that you got to this with Angel before I could with Amy, but I'm still proud of what you've managed to do." He looked at his feet for a moment. "Devil, I want you to promise me something. Take good care of the baby, will you? Enjoy fatherhood, and making a family. I know I never will." Devil stood stock still, eyes watering up. Snively had to resist an urge to gag at the sappy display. He hated Chao. Slowly, finally, Shadow turned to face Amy. Snively grunted quietly, knowing he had to let them go through with this pathetic display of passion, though he wished he could just shoot them all and be done with it. He had a feeling this would be the sappiest of all Shadow's farewells. He was right. "Amy.what can I say? Nothing, except that I'm sorry." "S-sorry for what?" Amy asked, trying not to cry. "I'm sorry for not being able to fulfill my promise to you. I am sorry that neither of us will get to experience the wedded bliss we have been hoping for all these years." He shook his head, reminiscing a little. "You know, when I was first introduced to you, when Robotnik told me Big had created a possible mate for me, I was apprehensive. I didn't want something artificial, something that was a female copy of me. But it turned out you were more than I had ever expected. When we had our first adventure together, when Snively tried to launch the Death Snivel for the first time, you showed incredible skill and prowess. I was starting to like you then. But when he tried to launch it for the third time, with the power of the Master Emerald, we had to use the Chaos and Super Emeralds to transform. Remember that Amy? How we destroyed the ship and Snively's robot weapon together? I think after that is when I first realized how I felt. When I first realized that I loved you." "Shadow." Amy whispered, inaudibly. Shadow looked deep into her eyes. "I love you, Amy. There is nothing more I have to say." Snively snorted loudly, not wanting to hear another word of this romantic blather. "How revolting. Are you quite done with your sappy speeches and farewells?" Shadow turned around and glared at his enemy. "Yes, I'm done." "Good!" Snively whipped out his gun and fired three shots to his right before anyone could move. The first bullet hit Robotnik in the stomach, rupturing his liver. He gasped in pain and fell over, blood welling up from the hole in his red jacket. The second bullet struck Eggchao between the eyes, ripping a hole through his head. He was dead before he hit the ground. The third and final bullet hit the Chao egg, shattering it and killing the Chao embryo inside. Devil screeched in shock as the pieces of his unborn offspring clattered to the floor. Damn, I missed the old man's heart! Snively thought to himself, a little disappointed. As Shadow, Amy, Angel and Devil looked at Snively in horror, the villain quickly recovered from his momentary disappointment and slammed a button on his control panel. "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog!" he yelled as the pod rumbled and was ejected through a hatch that opened and quickly closed in the floor. The capsule could be seen hurtling away from the colony. It reached a certain point and exploded into a million pieces. Devil screamed and ran up to a picture window, pressing his face against the glass and crying. Amy looked out the window in disbelief as the explosion faded and the remaining debris tumbled through space. Shadow was gone, his worst enemy dead after all these years and failures. Snively laughed maniacally. "At last! AT LAST! After all these years, I've finally done it! Shadow the Hedgehog is dead! Ahahahahahahaha! The old man isn't dead yet, but will be soon! His pathetic little pet is dead, and that runt of an egg is destroyed as well! All I have to do now is eliminate you, the echidna, the bat and the lizard and all my enemies will be gone forever! Ahahahahahahaha!" He smirked. His eyes had a terrifying insane gleam in them. "Now Amy, be a good girl and hand over the Super Emerald. I promise to kill you immediately if you do so, sparing you the agony of the slow death I have planned otherwise." He was lying of course, either way he would force-feed her to the roboticizer. That or torture her to death, he hadn't made up his mind yet. He knew he would have to do something unbelievably and needlessly cruel to the Chao, but he wasn't sure what just yet. Angel started crying. How pathetic. Amy stared at him for a few seconds, mouth open, tears streaming from her eyes. "You.you.you MONSTER! YOU'VE KILLED MY CHAO'S BABY! YOU'VE KILLED EGGCHAO! YOU'VE KILLED THE ONLY PERSON I'VE EVER LOVED! IF YOU THINK I'M JUST GOING TO HAND OVER THE EMERALD, YOU HAVE ANOTHER THING COMING, BASTARD!" Snively was a little taken aback. He lost it. "You dare talk to me that way?! I am Snively, Emperor of the World! Forget mercy, I'll kill you now!" He put away the gun and readied his walker for combat. "I'm going to do what Shadow never managed to do, and kill you once and for all! This is for Shadow, Snively. DIE!!!!" Tears streaking down their cheeks, Amy and Angel charged towards Snively, both of them fueled by anger beyond belief, one for the loss of her child, one for the loss of her lover.  
  
AMY  
  
Amy smashed into Snively, sending the walker a few steps backwards. She ran forward and started hitting him over and over again with the Passion's hammer, damaging it with each hit. Snively activated his boxing glove, delivering a punch strong enough to knock the Passion back quite a bit. Snively had souped up his walker since their last fight in anticipation of another battle. Snively locked on to Amy and fired, causing damage. Amy ran forward again, firing repeatedly from her cannon while Angel locked on to Snively and fired laser blast after laser blast, each hitting Snively and causing more and more damage. She got really close to Snively and fired the hammer, cannon, and laser all at once, exploding between the two walkers and damaging them both. Snively tried to punch Amy. She responded by immediately blasting the boxing glove, destroying it. Snively started getting more aggressive, running around the room and firing laser blasts at Amy. To avoid the lock on laser, she jumped and hovered in the air, over the range for his laser targeting. He jumped into the air as well, hovering, locking on, and firing a blast at her. Amy fell to the floor, her hovering system temporarily disrupted. Snively stayed in the air and fired multiple blasts from his cannon, a few of which hit Amy as she ran around the room. Snively landed and ran towards her, trying to lock on. Angel tried to lock on to the tyrant, but he jumped and hovered again, shooting more precise cannon blasts. The Passion shook a bit. Amy punched a button on her console. Small hatches opened on her legs. Rockets fired out of the holes, streaming towards Snively. Surprised, he couldn't move away in time and was hit by the dozen explosives. His walker shook terribly. "Wh- where did you get that rocket launcher?!" he shouted. "You stole the weapons in the shuttle, didn't you? Well, if you think they're going to help you, you're wro-" While Snively had been talking, Angel and Amy had both fired their weapons at him, causing more damage. Snively wobbled as the walker shook. "Okay, that does it!" Snively activated his own Rocket Launcher, firing the missiles at Amy. Amy ran right towards Snively, the missiles exploding around and sometimes on her, ramming into Snively and hitting him with her hammer. Snively fired his cannon at extremely close range, damaging both of the walkers. Amy shook it off and started whacking him again with her hammer. Snively locked on and fired at close range. Angel did the same exact thing and both walkers trembled and stepped back, damaged. Snively ran across the room, zigzagging to avoid the shots fired at him. He turned around and pressed another button on his console. The lens on the front of his vehicle started glowing. Amy knew what this meant and started to run out of Snively's line of fire. The evil scientist fired his Power Laser, sweeping the enormous beam towards Amy. As the laser was about to hit her, Amy jumped and hovered over the beam, going towards Snively. She landed right behind him and started whacking him with her hammer before he could turn around and hit her with the Power Laser. When he did turn around, she just hovered over him and kept whacking away with the hammer. Finally, the laser was cut off. Snively shot his cannon, knocking Amy back and damaging both walkers. Amy had enough of playing around. She pressed another button on her walker as Snively locked on and fired a few laser blasts. The jet intake on the front of the Passion on the front of the nozzle started to glow. Snively's eyes widened in surprise. He tried to get out of the way, but was too late. The Power Laser fired, hitting Snively. The massive laser sliced through his defenses, causing massive damage to the Snivel Walker. He screamed and pulled out of the beam, somehow still active! It seemed he had really done a number on the walker to make it strong enough to resist the Power Laser. He used the same strategy Amy had, jumping and hovering over the laser and trying to get behind Amy. However, as he had started to land, Amy spun the Passion around, giving him another dose of the Power Laser at close range. He tried to get away, but since he was already so close, she just kept turning to keep him in the full focus of the beam. Finally, she cut the beam off. Snively's walker creaked and moaned. Smoke was starting to seep from some of the joints. Snively hacked on the smoke, growled, and charged forward, slamming into the Passion. They both fired their cannons and laser blasters at close range, damaging the conditions of their respective vehicles even further. As Snively frantically tried to fire again, Amy and Angel fired all their long-range weapons at once, the cannon, the Laser Blaster, the Rocket Launcher, and the Power Laser. The four attacks hit Snively for incredible damage. His walker quaked and fell to the ground, smoking. Amy and Angel were triumphant, but it seemed to be a hollow victory. Amy looked down, still crying. "Shadow, I did it." she whispered. Angel suddenly yelped, trying to get Amy's attention. Amy looked up and saw the Snivel Walker was on its feet again! "What? No! I beat you!" Snively laughed, glad his recent upgrade had worked. "Wrong! As you saw before, I've upgraded my walker! Aside from being stronger, I reinforced the armor with titanium! Those attacks of yours hurt a great deal, but not enough to destroy the Snivel Walker!" He pulled out his gun and fired a very precise bullet at the knee joint of the Passion's left leg. Already damaged enough by the battle, the Passion buckled and fell over, the right leg shorting out. Snively came closer, looming over Amy, who had fallen out of her cockpit. He chuckled and brought his gun to bear. "Well Amy, it seems history has repeated itself. You've lost, like you did back on Prison Island. It seems you are destined to fail, my dear." A smile creeped onto his lips. He had been waiting to do this for a long, LONG time. "This time, nothing is going to stop me from killing you. Say hi to your boyfriend for me when you get to the other side, okay?" His finger tightened on the trigger. There was one thing he hadn't counted on, though. Angel was still sitting behind the Laser Blaster. Despite the weird angle she was at, she had locked on to Snively's gun while he had been talking. As he was about to fire, Angel shot a laser blast, striking the gun and causing it to explode right in Snively's hand. He screamed and clutched his right hand, now burnt and blackened beyond recovery, another body part lost to him. However, this time he would not get a chance to replace it with a robotic appendage. Amy stood up, pulling the Piko Piko Hammer from the dimensional pocket. Screaming out a battlecry, she smashed her hammer into the Snivel Walker's left leg. The force of her blow smashed through the reinforced armor and completely destroyed the joints and servos, severing the lower left leg from the rest of the body. Snively wailed as the vehicle toppled over, causing him to fall from his seat. As he grunted and got up, he saw Amy looming over him. She swung the hammer down at him. Snively tried to block it with his metal arm. The powerful blow from Amy's hammer broke the robot arm, severing it at the elbow. It fell to the floor, useless. He gaped. Amy cried out and used her Hammer Whirl, smashing into Snively's chest and sent him hurtling into a wall, breaking his artificial ribs. He yelled in pain. He had never actually been hurt directly in a battle with Shadow or the others; the only damage was caused when his final vehicle blew up, costing him a body part. Amy slowly walked over to him, holding the hammer tightly. Snively looked up, trembling, as the pink hedgehog stood over him. "M-mercy, please." he managed to say, terrified. "Mercy?" she asked coldly. "When have you ever showed mercy, Snively? To your victims, to my friends and me? To Shadow? No, you deserve no mercy, tyrant. And so I will show you none in return." She raised her hammer high. "I promised never to kill a human. I think for you, I'll make an exception." Snively tried to scurry away, but she planted a foot on his chest to hold him down. He met her eyes. There was rage and hatred in them. It terrified him. She brought the hammer down in the most powerful smash she had ever performed. Blood sprayed onto her dress, making it a little redder than before. She dropped the hammer, now soaked with Snively's blood, and walked over to the windows, staring at where the escape pod had exploded. She fell to her knees and began sobbing. Angel fell out of the Laser Blaster seat and limped over to Robotnik, who wasn't dead just yet. She climbed onto his chest and placed her hands around the wound, concentrating. As her healing magic began, the bullet levitated out of the hole, dropping onto the floor. The hole started to seal up. Angel let go, panting, as the wound was sealed up, his liver rapidly healing. Robotnik would be up soon, and able to mourn with the rest of them. Angel got off of Robotnik's chest and limped over to her love, who was still pressed against the window. She touched his shoulder. Devil slowly turned around, his wet eyes staring into her own. They broke down and hugged each other, tears falling to the ground.  
  
And so ends the life of Dr. Snively, a man who will most certainly not be missed. Tune in next time, for the final chapter of the Dark Story. 


	13. Final Chase

At long last, here it is, the final chapter of this story. And in case you were wondering, yes it is a cliffhanger. The conclusion to both tales will be written in the Last Story, coming soon. And now, without further adieu, the conclusion to Shadow Adventure 2: Dark Story. Disclaimer: I am not saying it.  
  
Day X, 11:32 PM  
  
Rouge hummed a little tune to herself, happy. She was a little surprised by her feelings for Knuckles, after all, they had only met a couple of days ago! She had thought the whole love at first sight thing was just a fairytale. Then again, it was more like she had fallen in love with him during that intense fight, one she had almost lost. She hoped he would call her later. She hoped even more that she ran into him before either of them left the colony. In a corner of her mind though, she felt a little anxious about forming a relationship with Knuckles. She could just imagine two cartoon angel and devil versions of herself arguing about the problem of this possible relationship. This is how the argument went.  
  
ANGEL ROUGE: She shouldn't associate herself with Knuckles. DEVIL ROUGE: Why? ANGEL: There are lots of reasons. First of all, he has a prior engagement to the Master Emerald. He has to spend his life guarding it. He shouldn't take time away from his duty for any reason, it is his job after all. DEVIL: Yeah, but his ancestors must have taken time from guardianship. How else could their line have been continued for all these centuries? ANGEL: Hmmm, good point. However, we have to think about how Knuckles' people would feel. I hear the echidnas value their traditions, and it's hard to tell how they would take Knuckles going out with a bat of all people. DEVIL: How come? ANGEL: As I said, tradition. Knuckles said the first male born to the Guardian of the Emerald would become the next Guardian. And since it has always been an Echidna as Guardian, having a bat as the firstborn son would break the tradition. DEVIL: Yeah, but tradition's probably been broken lots of times. I heard once that there was an old tradition preventing the echidnas on Angel Island from ever leaving the Isle, but they opened up to trade and tourism decades ago. There are lots of echidnas of Angel Island descent all over the world, meaning they had to leave, right? That's one tradition broken and nobody really cared. Besides, it's Knuckles' choice who he wants to go out with, not the leaders of the Island. If he wants to go ahead and break tradition, good for him. ANGEL: I admit that's true. But you are forgetting the most important reason of all why Rouge should leave well enough alone. DEVIL: What's that? ANGEL: Among many things, Rouge is a jewel thief. Settling down would mean the end of her career as a criminal. Does she want to do that? DEVIL: If she loves Knuckles enough, then of course she wants to. Besides, he protects the biggest jewel in the world. If Rouge were to become, say, Mrs. Knuckles, she would also protect the jewel. It far outweighs all of the other jewels she could steal in value or size, therefore she would have no more need to steal jewels. ANGEL: You know, you're right. DEVIL: Wait, you're actually agreeing with me? ANGEL: Yeah, I only argue with you because I, the representative of Rouge's good side, am supposed to always disagree with you, the representative of Rouge's bad side. But you're usually right, so why bother arguing? DEVIL: I see. So what do you think of Knuckles then? ANGEL: He's a total hottie! DEVIL: Do you think his Angel and Devil figments are as sexy as he is? ANGEL: Ooh, I certainly hope so!  
  
Rogue shook herself from the imaginary antics of her conscience and entered the control room. She had a mission to accomplish. She could be frivolous after it was over. She went up to the computer cylinder and climbed up, reaching for the red Super Emerald. "Step away from the Emeralds." Said a cold voice behind her. Rouge turned around and saw Scales. "Scales? I didn't see you there!" Scales took a few steps forward. "I can hide myself quite well when need be. Now I'll say this again, leave the Emeralds alone." Rouge smiled and shrugged. "Sorry Scales, but these jewels are mine. I helped steal them, I get them." Scales grimaced. "You only got four of the Emeralds for us. Your logic makes no sense. Tell me, are you taking the Emeralds because you want them for display in whatever cavern you keep your jewels in, or are you taking them because you were ordered to?" Rouge tried not to flinch. "Wh-what are you talking about?" Scales took another step forward. "You know very well what I'm talking about. President Chao-lin told you to take the Emeralds, didn't you Rouge? Or should I say.Agent Crimson?" Rouge was quite evidently startled, her cover blown. "H-h-how did you know?" Scales shrugged. "Hacking into the CIA database was child's play for someone like myself. I know you as Rouge, prime jewel thief, wanted in many countries, but you are also Agent Crimson, part-time spy for the president in exchange for jewels and amnesty for your crimes." Rouge frowned. "Well, I would call that an invasion of privacy." Scales snorted. "That's rich, coming from you Rouge." Rouge blinked. "What do you mean?" Scales shook her head. "I know you were in here only a little while ago, looking up the data on me and my brother. I bet you know all about the results of Project Ultimate, don't you Rouge?" "H-how did you-" Rouge stammered. Scales stepped forward some more, almost at the base of the computer. "You must understand Rouge, there is nothing on this space colony that I cannot see. Now one more time, I ask you to step down and leave the Emeralds where they lie." Rouge frowned. "I'm not going to let millions of people die." Scales chuckled. "Nobody is going to die who doesn't deserve it. They've had it coming for years. The planet will be better for their loss." Rouge eyed Scales skeptically. "I read all of your mother's notes, how she wanted you and your brother to make people happy. How can mass killing make the citizens of Earth happy?" Scales cocked her head. "Well, I don't have the time or the desire to completely explain my reasons Rouge, but I will say that the people who live will be happier without the ones who will be annihilated by the Eclipse Cannon." Rouge was understandably still skeptical. "How can letting Snively take over the world make anybody happy?" Scales grinned, her sharp teeth showing. "Who said anything about letting Snively rule the world? After the cannon fires, he's going down as well." Scales frowned at Rouge's surprised expression. "Oh don't look surprised Rouge. He was going to kill us anyway. I'll be doing the world a favor by killing him. You have to admit that." Rouge was starting to feel a little confused. Scales seemed to be talking sense, but her motives didn't match up. "I still don't understand all of this. Why are you allowing people to die?" A very cold, harsh look came into Scales' eyes. "Because of what they've done to me, to my family. Because they ruined hundreds of lives and are planning to ruin hundreds more. Because, in the end, they aren't much better than Snively." Rouge couldn't help getting a little scared. "And what did you plan for me? Another killing so nobody would know you are behind all this?" Scales chuckled darkly. "Actually Rouge, I was hoping we could be friends. I don't want or plan to hurt you, but you must understand that if you remove even one Super Emerald from its socket, I will have no choice but to take it back from you by means I may regret later." Rouge hesitated, then got down from the central pillar. "Thank you. Oh, and can you please give me the Chaos Emerald you took from Security Hall?" Rouge was shocked once more. "How did you know I stole it?' "I can sense it on you, the Chaos energy radiating around your body. That Emerald does not belong to you. Please hand it over, or I will have to take that as I threatened to take the Super Emeralds if you stole them." said Scales. Rouge reluctantly gave the lizard the green Chaos Emerald. "Thank you." "My boss won't be very happy with this." Muttered Rouge. Scales noticed something on the monitor. Currently a map of the ARK was displayed, showing where all the living organisms on board were. "Hey Rouge, there's something going on Observation deck B!" said Scales. A little curious despite her worry about what would happen if the cannon fired, Rouge came over. "Almost everyone is in that room. I wonder what's going on there? Too bad the security net is down, or we could take a look." Scales strode forward. "If you will move aside for just a second, I can show you how I perceive all on this colony." Rouge moved away from the control panel. Scales raised her left hand, the one not holding the Emerald, over the control panel. Cables suddenly shot from her hand, interfacing with the computer. There was much blinking of lights and whirring sounds, but eventually Scales withdrew the cables. "There. I have just repaired every security camera on the colony. Please show what's going on at the observation deck." A little impressed, Rouge obeyed. A window popped up, showing the dramatic scene with Shadow's last words to Amy. When Shadow had finished his speech, Snively shot Robotnik, Eggchao, and the Chao egg, then launched Shadow to his doom. Rouge gasped. "Oh God! I didn't think Snively was that heartless!" "I can do nothing for the egg or the Chao, but I can save Shadow." Scales said, knowing there wasn't much time. "How?" Rouge asked, not wanting the world's greatest hero to just die on her watch. Scales held up the Emerald. "Chaos Control!" The green Emerald flashed and disappeared. A few seconds later, they looked back to the camera footage to see Shadow's escape pod blow up. "There. He's safe now." "What do you mean he's safe? HE JUST EXPLODED!" yelled Rouge. Scales smiled smugly. "No, he didn't. I just sent the Emerald to him, providing a way out of his predicament. I'm sure that if you check the map, you'll see his bio-sign still remains." More than a little apprehensive, Rouge checked the colony map and saw two life signs near an entrance into space. After a moment, one of the signals exited the colony and the other wandered around aimlessly. "I'm not saying whatever you did worked, but something is heading for the Eclipse Cannon." Said Rouge. Scales smiled. "Well, I'd better go down there and make sure my old friend doesn't mess up everything I've been working for. I'm going outside." She turned and started heading for the exit. "Do you want me to turn off the defenses?" asked Rouge. Scales paused. "No, I would prefer to have a bit of a workout before my inevitable meeting with Shadow." She almost went through the door, then turned around. "Oh, and remember not to take the Super Emeralds. As I've shown, nothing happens on this colony that I don't know about. I have a wireless connection to the security cameras as of my rebooting the system, and I'll know if you take them." She hesitated. "When next we meet, I hope we'll be on better terms." Scales walked out of the room. Rouge looked longingly at the Super Emeralds, but gave it up. She took another look at the map of the ARK. Despite the two missing life signs in Observation deck B, most of the life on the ARK was still there. She hadn't seen Knuckles in that shot from the security camera, which led her to believe he was one of the two near that exit from the colony. And if Scales was correct, and Shadow was the one who had used that exit, then Knuckles must be the other one. She saw the life sign that had to be Knuckles wandering aimlessly, nearly falling into a huge ventilation shaft. Poor thing. Rouge had a sudden desire to go after him, to see him, to touch him; maybe to kiss him.She smiled and left the room.  
  
Stage 13: Final Chase. Mission: Hurry to the Eclipse Cannon.  
  
Scales was in battle mode and on a catwalk outside in space. Right past the end of the catwalk was a huge spinning green vertical drum. She ran towards the drum and jumped. The drum was actually a gravity generator, and pulled the lizard on to its surface. She ran up the drum as it rotated, jumping to one of two platforms on either side of the drum. The platform had a spring, which she bounced on to reach a catwalk at the top of the drum. She took a step forward and was hit from behind by a laser blast. She yelped and turned around, seeing an Artificial Chaos on the stable top of the drum. Scales killed the Chaos with a Homing Kick, then jumped back on the catwalk and started going down it. She ran down the catwalk and across a horizontal gravity drum, killing the floating Artificial Chaos hovering above it. She jumped off the drum and onto another catwalk. She followed it ahead and found a spring pointing up and to the left. She bounced off the spring and landed on a higher catwalk. She ran down the catwalk and bounced off another spring, landing on a higher catwalk on her left. She ran down the catwalk and onto a horizontal gravity drum. She ran across it and onto a platform. A Beetle hovering off the platform hit her with its gun. She hit it with a Homing Kick and used another one to get to the higher platform behind the Beetle. She used another pair of Homing Kicks on the next Beetle and landed on a catwalk with an arched cover, making it a sort of tunnel. Straight ahead was a Shield Hunter, who started firing its laser gun. Scales ran towards the Hunter and smashed its shield with a single kick, then shattered the robot itself to pieces with a Tail Whip. She proceeded forward through the tunnel, coming out at the end of the catwalk. To her right was a horizontal drum. She jumped on it and ran along its length, jumping to another drum. She ran across that one as well and jumped to a third horizontal drum. After running and jumping onto a catwalk from that drum, Scales killed a Shield Hunter ahead of her. Taking only a second to rest, Scales jumped off the end of the catwalk and onto a vertical drum. She ran up the drum and jumped on the top, bouncing off a spring and landing on another catwalk. She killed a Hornet and ran along the long catwalk, jumping off the end to a horizontal drum on her right. She ran to the end of the drum and onto another horizontal one, running and jumping onto a catwalk that extended into a steep hill. She ran down the hill and jumped off the end before she could fall, landing on a catwalk below. She killed a Shield Hunter, ran down the catwalk and jumped on another horizontal drums. She ran around the spinning cylinder and jumped off the end, landing on another one. She ran down this one and jumped to a third, jumping from the end of that drum to a catwalk. She ran down the catwalk and entered an alcove with a vertical drum and an Artificial Chaos. She killed the Artificial Chaos and ran up the drum, jumping from the top to a deeper alcove guarded by two more Artificial Chaos. She killed the robots and jumped down a blue hole in the floor, dropping out into space and landing on a rail. She grinded down the rail, going through various speed rings and avoiding enemy fire and asteroids for a few moments before landing on a catwalk. She killed a Hawk that assaulted her and ran to the end of the catwalk, jumping to a vertical drum. She ran to the top and was almost knocked off when an Artificial Chaos tried to grab her with its tendrils. She hit the robot on the head with her tail, destroying it. She jumped from the top of the drum to another vertical drum and ran to the top, killing another Artificial Chaos that attacked her up there. She jumped to a green platform and from there she jumped to another vertical drum and ran up its length, avoiding shots from some Beetles. She got to the top and jumped to yet another vertical drum, killing an Artificial Chaos at the top. She jumped to another platform and from there to a vertical drum and got to the top, killing another Artificial Chaos. She saw she was just above the midpoint of a double vertical drum, this one with an electric field in the center. She used a Homing Kick to get safely over the field and ran up the side of the drum, dodging enemy fire. At the top, she killed a Hornet and jumped to one more vertical drum. She ran to the top of the drum, killed an Artificial Chaos, and jumped to a platform. She grinded down a long, twisting rail leading from that platform and landed on a catwalk extending into a hill. She ran down the steep hill and landed on a long catwalk with a Shield Hunter. She killed the Hunter and ran to the end of the catwalk, bouncing from a spring. She landed on a rail and started grinding down its length, past buildings, meteors, and Artificial Chaos blobs before reaching the end. She jumped from the rail and landed on another one, grinding down its equally long and dangerous span before launching from the end and landing on a small green platform. She dropped from the platform and onto a dual green platform lined with vertical drums. Scales used a Homing Kick to get on one of the cylinders. She ran up it and jumped from the top to the top of another drum. She hopped across the tops of the drums and found a spring at the end of her row. She bounced from the spring and landed at the top of a catwalk that extended into a long and steep hill. She ran down the hill and launched into a gap filled with horizontal drums at various heights. She used a Homing Kick to get to the nearest drum, and used another Homing Kick to get to the highest drum beyond that. From there, she jumped and Homing Kicked to a ledge on her right, where she found a spring. She bounced off the spring and landed on a catwalk that extended into a hill. Scales ran down the hill, enjoying the run, and dropped from the bottom, landing on.nothing! There was no catwalk or platform! Scales was falling, falling between two wide walls with multiple horizontal drums strewn about. Scales needed no drums, though. She used her jet anklets to maneuver down the pitfall, moving past the drums to avoid getting caught in their gravity, and landed on a green catwalk past where the walls ended, out in clear space. She mused that there was nothing to keep her from falling to the planet far below if she took a wrong step. Nothing but her Chaos Control, of course. She looked around and saw a series of horizontal drums leading away from the platform. She carefully jumped across the drums, dodging fire from the always dangerous Artificial Chaos. She leapt from the last drum and landed on a catwalk that sloped into a steep hill. She ran down the hill, picking up lots of speed, and fell from the end, landing on a catwalk below. She ran down the catwalk, killed a Shield Hunter that accosted her, and jumped on a rail at the end. She grinded down the rail, passing through several speed rings. She passed asteroids, Artificial Chaos, and Hawks, some of which fired, some of which didn't. The rail twisted around buildings and walls before finally stopping on a catwalk. She ran down the catwalk and jumped onto a horizontal gravity drum. A floating Artificial Chaos shot its lasers at her. Scales killed the blob with a Homing Kick, then jumped to another horizontal drum. She ran along its length and jumped onto a catwalk. She killed a Hornet before it could fire its homing missiles and ran down the catwalk, jumping onto a rail at the end and grinding down its length. She passed through speed rings, moving too fast to get hit by the asteroids and enemies floating about. She stayed on the rail as it twisted around and around, spiraling downward and finally curving up and stopping. She shot off the end of the rail, the speed she had accumulated from the ride shooting her across a wide gap and onto a horizontal drum. She dropped from the horizontal drum and onto a platform with a spring pointing away. She bounced off the spring, hurtled through the air, and landed on a rail. She started grinding down the rail, passing through speed rings and speeding past lots of obstacles that would normally be dangerous. This rail was quite a lot longer than most and a bit fun as well. As she passed through more and more rings while crouching down, she soon got so fast that anything that saw her thought she was a blur. The rail ended abruptly on a platform, sending Scales right into a dash panel immediately followed by a jump pad. The extreme speed she had now gained launched her an incredible distance. She felt like laughing. It was almost like she had imagined flying would be. But she had no time to play around, she had to finish her mission. After flying for a while, she started to fall. She activated her anklets and descended to a ledge and an alcove. She ran into the alcove and found a door leading to a room guarded by a pair of Artificial Chaos. She killed the robots and jumped down a hole in the middle of the room, landing on a catwalk. She ran down the catwalk and ran down a steep hill. Instead of simply dropping from the end, she found herself going through a set of dash panels and running through a record-breaking seven loops before launching from a jump pad and landing on a platform far away. She saw a horizontal drum in front of her and jumped to it. She ran to the end of the drum and jumped to another drum. She ran down it and jumped to a platform with a Shield Hunter. She killed the Hunter and jumped to a horizontal drum on her right. She ran along the drum, jumped to another one on her right, and was attacked by a Hornet. She killed the Hornet and got to the end of the drum, jumping to another one on her left. She ran down the drum and jumped to another one straight ahead. She got to the end of the platform and was attacked by a floating Artificial Chaos hovering in the gap between Scales and the next drum. As it fired lasers, Scales killed it with a Homing Kick, then used another Homing Kick to get to the drum. She ran to the end of the drum and saw there was nowhere else to go. Then she noticed a pulley. She ran back around the drum and jumped, grabbing the pulley. It lifted her to the bottom of a vertical drum. She jumped to the drum and was caught by its gravity. She ran up the drum and killed a waiting Artificial Chaos before bouncing from a spring the Artificial Chaos had been sitting on and landed on a long platform. She ran to the end and found a rocket. She grabbed the rocket and was launched towards a vertical drum in the distance. She let go as she got close and was pulled in by the cylinder's gravity. She ran up the drum, killed an Artificial Chaos, and jumped to the first in a series of horizontal drums. She hopped from drum to drum, eventually reaching the last one. She saw a hanging pulley and grabbed it. The pulley raised her up to another vertical drum. She ran to the top of the drum, killed an Artificial Chaos, and looked for a way off. She saw a pulley hanging only a foot or so from and a few feet above the top of the drum. She jumped off and used a Homing Kick, grabbed the pulley. It raised her to a platform with a very long chain of hovering Beetles leading to an extremely tall vertical drum. She took a few moments to catch her breath, then started across the line. She Homing Kicked from Beetle, to Beetle, sending the flying robots falling in pieces to the planet below, where they would hopefully burn up in the atmosphere before they could hit something. After half a minute of pure Homing Attacking, Scales used one last Homing Kick to get to the bottom of the really big drum. She started running up the drum, racing around the sides to avoid the shots from various enemy drones. After a long run, she got to the top of the drum and found a Shield Hunter waiting for her! Even though there wasn't any room to fight, she narrowly managed to kill the Hunter, but not without a hit in return. Wincing a little in pain, Scales jumped from the top of the drum to a catwalk leading to a door in a large building that extended down quite a ways, to a separate set of rails and catwalks she was sure Shadow was using right now. She ran down the catwalk and into the building, coming into a big rectangular chamber. At the other side of the room from Scales was a ladder going up to a ledge with a door on it. Hovering in the air above her were three dozen blobs of Artificial Chaos. A little wary, Scales took a step forward. Immediately, the blobs convulsed and regurgitated all their water from them, dropping it to the ground and forming the little Chaos blobs. As the huge army of small blobs started making for Scales, she quickly ran across the room and climbed up to the ledge before the blobs could get her. She tried to get through the door, but found it was locked. She looked down and saw the whole floor was covered in bloodthirsty baby Artificial Chaos. There was only one possible way to open the door. She curled into a spiked ball and started spinning in place, as if for a spindash. Lights started to race around her. After a few seconds, she got up and started glowing. "This is for you, Mother!" she yelled as she unleashed her Light Attack. She was in the air for a whole minute, moving at the speed of light as she smashed through every Artificial Chaos in the room, a spinning ball of death leaving a trail of green light. She dropped to the ground as the last enemy was destroyed. She clutched her chest and panted, a little winded. After a minute, she got up and headed for the door, which slid open as she approached. She went down a hallway that led to an elevator. Hovering in front of the elevator was the Goal Ring. Scales stepped through the ring, finishing the level.  
  
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)  
  
Scales retracted her spines as her eyes turned back to yellow. She stepped into the elevator and went down the shaft. Soothing elevator music started playing, a welcome relief from the rigorous trials she had just faced. "Some workout." She said, closing her eyes and relaxing as the music rolled over her, reminding her of better times. She sobered up, not wanting to be reminded of those times. After a little while, the elevator reached the bottom. The doors opened, and Scales stepped out into the back of a long green hallway leading out to a bridge in space. She saw Shadow immediately, who took a step back, a little surprised. Shadow tensed, ready to attack if she made any threatening moves. The cyborg lizard smiled. "I thought I'd find you here, Shadow. I commend you on making it through the last section. It was almost as hard as what I had to get through to arrive here." Shadow frowned. "What, you couldn't just warp here with Chaos Control?' She chuckled. "I could have, but I wanted a little warm-up before our battle." Shadow cocked his head. "So, how did you know I would come here?" Scales shrugged, deciding to be honest. "Let me put it this way. There is nothing on this colony that I cannot see, if I wish to see it." Shadow sighed and looked down the hallway. "Look, I'd love to talk, but I have a planet to save." He started to walk down the hallway. Suddenly worried, Scales called out to him. "Shadow, wait!" He turned around. She walked over, standing beside him. "Go out there if you must, but please listen to me first." She said, hoping she could convince him not to go through with this. "I don't have much time." said Shadow. "I know, this will only take a minute." She said. Shadow sighed and folded his arms, listening. "Right now, you are at a crossroads, Shadow. You have a choice to make. You can either go out there and try to stop the cannon from firing or you can stay here and talk with me." "Great, I'll just go now." Said Shadow, taking a step forward. "Hear me out!" said Scales, a little desperation leaking into her voice. "If you go out there and stop the cannon, you will undo something that I have been waiting fifty years for, and allow hundreds of people who do not deserve to live to keep going on with life." She said, anger for her past starting to well up. Shadow blinked in surprise. "And if I stay here?" he asked. "Then I will make good on my promise of explanations. I will tell you everything, Shadow. Why this place seems familiar to you, how the Chaos Emerald got into your escape pod, how you got to be in the cryogenic capsule you were discovered in, how we know each other, why I am doing all of this, who made you, and most importantly, why you were made. I will tell you all of this if you just stay and listen to me. Please, Shadow," said Scales, her eyes filled with desperation and hope. "Please don't do this. Grant me this one favor, and don't try to stop what I'm doing." She watched him agonize over his choice. She knew what he had to be going through, dying to know what had happened but also dying to do what he thought was right. She pleaded to the heavens, begging Shadow to listen to her. Shadow looked up slowly. And Scales immediately knew what he would say. "I'm sorry." He said. She was crestfallen, but she had expected him to say this. After all, would he really be Shadow if he had said any different? "I have to at least try to save those people. I do want to know the answers to those questions, but when last we fought you promised you would tell me after this was over. And I'm holding you to that promise.' Scales got very sad. "I was afraid you would decide to do this." She said truthfully. She looked up, her sadness receding into the background, a fierce look in her eyes. "But I cannot let you succeed. The cannon has to fire Shadow, it absolutely has to. And to that end, I will do everything I can to ensure it will, even if it means hurting you." She closed her eyes for a moment, opening them again and staring directly into Shadow's. "You can Chaos Control if you fall of the edge of the bridge ahead, right?" "Uh, yes." Said Shadow. "Good, I will do the same." She closed her eyes again, making up her mind. She stared into Shadow's eyes again, trying to pound into him how serious a mistake he was making. "As I promised last time we met, I will not kill you Shadow." She flexed her muscles, and suddenly blades shot out of concealed folds on her body. Three shot out of the back of her neck, three appeared on both her upper and lower arms and two more appeared on each back-bent leg. Her eyes went red, and she stood before Shadow in full battle mode. "I may, no, will hurt you Shadow, but I will not kill you." She said, not really wanting to go through with fighting the black hedgehog. Shadow hesitated. "And I will try to extend the same courtesy to you Scales." She nodded. They walked to the beginning of the green hallway and crouched down, getting ready to run. Shadow turned to the lizard. "Just out of curiosity, how do we know each other? Were you an old girlfriend of mine or something? Because if you are, I have to warn you I'm with Amy now." Scales stared at him for a second, startled. Then she burst into laughter. "Okay, I'll take that as a no. We were not boyfriend and girlfriend." Scales wiped her eyes, which were tearing from the laughter. "Heheheh. Woo, that was a good one. I haven't laughed like that for a very, very long time. Thanks Shadow. No, we were not boyfriend and girlfriend." Shadow nodded. "All right then. Are you ready?" She nodded. "I'm ready." "Then let's-" he started. "GO!" she yelled. They took off, running down the hallway and onto the bridge ahead.  
  
SHADOW  
  
They started running down the length of the bridge. It was a very long bridge, going about half a dozen miles in distance before stopping fairly close to the Eclipse Cannon. Even with the speed of these two runners, it would take a little while to reach the point of the cannon. "Before this is over, I will show you the ultimate in Chaos Control!" Scales shouted at him. "Speaking of which, what's with the Emerald in your back? I thought there were only seven Chaos Emeralds!" Shadow yelled back. Scales smiled a little smugly. "All I know is this thing's what keeps me going, and there's some legend behind it. That's all I can tell you now, Shadow. I suggest you start watching yourself." "Oh? Why is that?" he asked. "Because of.THIS!" Scales instantly launched into a Homing Kick, hitting Shadow with the talons on her feet and blades on her leg. She knocked him over with the attack and kept running down the bridge. Shadow grunted and got up, running after her. When Shadow caught up to the lizard, he thought for a moment then slowed a little, letting her move ahead. Then he launched into a Homing Attack, striking her life support. She stumbled, nearly falling down. Shadow ran past her, intent on his destination. Scales ran after him and hit him in the back with a Homing Kick. She ran past him as the hedgehog got up. He curled into a ball and started spinning. No, lights did not swirl around him. He shot forward in a spindash, racing towards Scales. She heard the whine of his rolling and jumped up, allowing him to pass underneath her. When Shadow stopped and uncurled, Scales hit him from behind with her bladed tail and kept going. Shadow growled and ran after her, launching into a Homing Attack. Scales jumped up, deflecting Shadow in midair and nearly sending him off the bridge. Shadow started his spindash again, but he did not roll right towards her, but rather beside Scales. She watched, bemused, as he slowed his roll to match her speed. That's when Shadow suddenly veered to the left, slamming into her. She caught herself before she could go over the edge and watched, a little angry as Shadow sped off, still rolling. She curled into a ball as well and started spinning. Her spikes stayed out as she launched forward in a spindash that was arguably a little more dangerous than Shadow's. She caught up to him, a rolling black ball leaving a trail of yellow light besides a bigger red-orange ball leaving a trail of green light. She rammed into Shadow, her spikes sparking upon impact with his sharp quills. He leaned back into her, trying to move her over. Sparks kept coming up from the contact of either opponent's sharp protrusions to each other. Shadow moved a little away from Scales, then slammed back into her, causing her to forcibly change course, rolling right towards the edge. Shadow kept going. Scales couldn't uncurl in time and rolled off the edge. She uncurled and quickly yelled, "Chaos Control!" There was a green flash, and she reappeared on the path just ahead of the rolling Shadow. Before he could stop rolling, she swung her tail, knocking him off the bridge. Shadow uncurled and quickly pulled out his Emerald. "Chaos Control!" he vanished in a flash of green light, reappearing on the bridge just as Scales ran by. He ran after her, quickly catching up. She smirked at him. He scowled back and clutched his Emerald, summoning a variation of his usual technique. "Chaos Control!" he yelled. He vanished. Scales instantly used Chaos Control as well, freezing time and allowing her to see Shadow, who was quite astonished that she had managed to follow her into chronological stasis. "How did you do that? You're supposed to be frozen!" Shadow yelled at the approaching Scales. "I know everything about Chaos Control that you do, Shadow! All I did was take myself temporarily out of synch from the time stream, like you did!" She launched into a Homing kick, hitting Shadow in the chest. She started running down the bridge. He got up and ran after her, freezing in place as the Chaos Control effect wore off for him. Knowing she only had seconds left before she too returned to real time, Scales ran back, delivered a hard kick to the chest of the immobile Shadow, then turned around and started running again as the Chaos Control wore off. She turned around and saw Shadow holding his chest, his face clenched up. "Hey Shadow, how about we don't mess with time freeze techniques and just try to knock one another senseless?" Scales called at him cheerfully. Shadow got up, recovered. "That works for me!" He ran towards her. She went back to running away, down the bridge. He stopped moving and aimed his Chaos Emerald at her, charging up his special attack. "Chaos Spear!" A massive bolt of green lightning burst forth from the Chaos Emerald, hitting Scales in the life support system. She gasped and fell to her knees. Shadow ran past her, taking the lead. Scales picked herself together and stood up. "Two can play at this game, Shadow!" she yelled. She ran after him, charging up her own special attack. She caught up with the hedgehog, running by his side. She cupped her hands and thrusted them at Shadow. "Serpent Strike!" She shouted. A huge green energy blast shaped like a serpent's head shot forth from her hands, hitting Shadow and driving him off the edge of the bridge. Shadow immediately warped back onto the bridge, surprised by the strength of the attack. "I'd better be more careful." He muttered to himself. He ran after her, charging up his Chaos Spear as he went. When they were once more side by side, Shadow aimed his Emerald at Scales as she aimed her hands at him. "Chaos Spear!" "Serpent Strike!" The attacks ran through each other and hit their intended targets, knocking both off of the bridge. Both quickly warped back on the bridge and went back to running. They charged up their attacks again, both of them trying to see who could do it faster. As they unleashed their Chaos- fueled attacks once more on one another, it seemed they could both do it at the same speed. They fell of the bridge and warped back on once more. As both of them started charging their attacks again, Shadow stopped running, allowing Scales to go past while still charging up her move. Scales kept going, thinking nothing of it. When Scales turned around and fired the Serpent Strike, Shadow let loose the spindash he had stopped to charge and ran forward, rolling under the Serpent Strike and hitting Scales, knocking her off her feet. As she tried to get up, he uncurled and hit her with his fully charged Chaos Spear. As she screamed in pain, Shadow started running past her, recharging his Chaos Spear. Scales stood up, recharging the Serpent Strike, and waited a few moments before running after Shadow. When he turned around and fired the Chaos Spear, Scales jumped over the lightning bolt and shot forward with a Homing Kick, hitting Shadow and knocking him down. She ran forward, leaving him in the dust, so to speak. Shadow cursed and got back up. He raised his Emerald. "Chaos Control!" He warped to the path ahead and just to the left of Scales. He stuck out his foot and tripped her before she saw him, knocking her over. He ran forward, getting closer to the cannon. Scales fumed and got up. "Chaos Control!" she yelled, vanishing. She reappeared up the path far ahead of Shadow and prepared her fully charged attack. "Serpent Strike!" The energy snake shot down the bridge towards Shadow. Shadow quickly somersaulted under the Serpent Strike and fired a Chaos Spear down the path, striking Scales. He clutched the Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Control!" he yelled, warping all the way down the bridge, a little past Scales, who was just recovering from the Chaos Spear. He kept running, knowing Scales was right behind him. As she launched into a Homing Kick, he jumped up, deflecting the attack. He kept on going, knowing he had probably a minute and a half left. Scales quickly used Chaos Control and appeared ahead of Shadow. Shadow quickly somersaulted, rolling into Scales and knocking her over. He continued running. Scales growled and used the Chaos Control to warp far down the path, much closer to the Eclipse Cannon. She curled into a ball and started spinning in place. Lights raced around her. After a few seconds and started glowing. "This is for you, Mother!" she yelled. She shot forward at the speed of light, thinking the Light Attack would be the only way to finish this battle and prevent Shadow from getting close to the cannon at the same time. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that Shadow was using the Light Attack as well. She raced towards him, once more a spinning, spiked red- orange ball leaving a trail of green light heading for his black ball with a trail of yellow light. The two objects, both moving at the speed of light, collided with an incredible crash, leaving both anthropomorphs stunned and senseless. By the time Shadow and Scales were able to pull themselves together, every clock in the USA struck midnight. Snively's deadline timer went off. The needle slowly, ponderously began to open. Shadow gasped. "The cannon! I've got to stop it! Chaos-" Scales grabbed his leg, flipping him over and dangling him above the ground. The Chaos Emerald fell from his hand, bouncing a few feet away, stopping a little down the path. "Too late. Game over, Shadow." Scales said as the cannon opened completely. The energy started to gather in the center of the cannon. Shadow struggled fiercely, punching Scales in the gut. More surprised than hurt, she let go of him. Shadow rolled over and grabbed the Chaos Emerald. He quickly shouted, "Chaos Control!" and warped to the end of the bridge before Scales could do anything. She immediately shouted "Chaos Control!" warping after Shadow and reappearing behind him. She didn't make a sound as he wound up his arm, ready to throw the fake Super Emerald into the Cannon. She stealthily snatched the fake Emerald from his hand. Shadow spun his arm forward, throwing the fake Super Emerald, only to find there was nothing in his hand! He spun around and saw Scales behind him, holding the Super Emerald. She shook her head, making a "Tsk tsk" sound. Shadow spun around in time to see the energy fire outward, streaking for the planet. Scales couldn't help grinning madly. At last, after all these years, it was all coming to an end! "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" Shadow yelled as the beam struck its target.  
  
At last, it's over. Another suspenseful cliffhanger, but it will all be concluded in the upcoming tale. So stay tuned, for the first chapter of Shadow Adventure 2: Last Story will soon be up. 


End file.
